House Of
by Tarabotti
Summary: Kurt's visit to a local magic shop transforms into an escape from school bullies, problems at home and loneliness. However, the House of Wonders requires a hefty price and no returns. Written for Kurt/BlaineReversebang2013, inspired by artwork by Magicalplaylist
1. House of Tricks

**AN: This is a story created for a Kurt/BlaineReversebang2013, inspired by an image made by awesome Magicalplaylist (you can find it in hi-res on her tumblr: magicalplaylist on mine: tarabottiwrites. or: kblreversebang) **

**This story was betaed by GG42, who pulled off an insane amount of work in a very short time and helped this story to exist! **

**I'll be adding a new chapter each day - there are nine of them - and I hope you all will enjoy it! **

**P.S. I know I have another story to update and I'm working on it :)**

**Warnings: ****Mentions of homophobia and bullying, minor character death, mental abuse, some physical violence, light swearing**

**Disclaimer: Glee characters are not mine - I only own the magic shop.**

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**Chapter 1**

**House of Tricks**

_ "This time it will work splendidly, Blaine," The Magician promised. If Blaine didn't know better he would swear the man looked guilty. _

_"Think about it – you won't be alone!"_

_He would prefer to be. Less reminders of the fact that the life was going forward out there._

_"You won't be able to say I don't learn from my mistakes."_

It was the wrong lesson though_. Blaine, however, had learnt a few lessons on his own as well. _

_Lie. Survive. Charm. Pretend. Don't argue – agree. Wait. _

_Of course, Blaine hadn't expected the arrival of the 'hurricane' that was about to challenge his patient plan._

The sign was barely readable behind the curtain of rain. It swayed rhythmically above the heavy wooden door. The warm light that beamed from the colourful display window tempted all that walked by.

**_House of Wonders_**

Kurt would quote that name if asked for the lamest shop name one could make up. He couldn't be picky, though, if he wanted to get away from the heavy summer rain. His bad luck was to be blamed that he chose this day to skip school, but with exams done and with a group of jocks he'd spotted by the garbage bin – probably waiting for him and other unfortunate kids – Kurt wouldn't even call it a choice, really. Normally it would be fine for him to just go back home but, after his argument with his dad this morning, he didn't want to try his luck sneaking into his room.

The interior of the shop seemed cozy and Kurt guessed it wouldn't hurt to actually wait inside for the change in the weather. From the entrance he was welcomed by a human sized mirror that made one's reflection disappear if he would move just off centre. Kurt discretely checked his appearance as sometimes even waterproof make up could get smudged if the nature's forces were involved. Fortunately everything had stayed sharp – the eyeliner still framed his blue-green eyes in a slim line and the sapphire shadow hadn't given him panda eyes. His chestnut hair with purple highlights had been unfortunately flattened by the rain. When the mirror also captured his gothic – well, _fake_ gothic – outfit together with the half mysterious, half gaudy interior around him he smiled bitterly - how ironic that he visually fitted so well with the last place he would normally visit. Not that he didn't like a sparkle of magic in his life but he knew this place mostly as where the jocks bought their exploding pens, farting pillows and other props for making cruel jokes. He could now see the assortment was much wider here than he had initially thought.

First of all, the shop itself looked spacious, even filled to the roof with packed shelves. At the front there was an old-fashioned counter surrounded by baskets with promotional little gadgets. Some examples were unpacked and there was a group of children that watched the contents with sparkly eyes. The salesman of indescribable age looked at the kids fondly in-between speaking with customers.

Figuring that he could at least wander around until the rain stops, Kurt decided to walk in further. He was confused seeing that there were more mirrors ahead – in different sizes, some normal, some distorting. The different angles of reflections were warping the simple structure of the shop and Kurt felt a bit dizzy at first from that, only getting used to mirrors catching customers' movement in the weirdest ways after a while . After the first row of shelves featuring the top sale products, the floor rose up and led to a more specialist section full of serious illusionist equipment. It was interesting to see that many of these were labelled as being just a base to customise depending on the plan to use them and creativity of the aspiring illusionist. It surprised Kurt that one entire shelf was filled with books and they were not only stage magic manuals, but also fiction and historic books. He frowned slightly seeing that many of them had tattered corners, as if they were read at the store rather than bought. Then, behind the shelves, at the back of the shop was arranged a cosy and intimate reading corner with few big sofas and a two coffee tables between them. It certainly encouraged him to relax there for a moment before delving back into illusionist magic props.

On an impulse he sat on one of the couches. It was pleasantly comfy and gave off this homely vibe that he hadn't felt in his own house lately.

"Sorry, dad. I didn't mean it that way," Kurt immediately whispered, because it wasn't his father's fault. They worked well together –well, _mostly_ - both supporting themselves in their loneliness, but both unable to be completely comfortable with each other. Even earlier today they'd had another fight, as Kurt's dad hadn't understood his son's need for privacy and a lock to his room.

Kurt closed his eyes for a moment, blocking out the shouts of excited children around. He felt safe now – from his bullies and from the fear of disappointment his father would feel if he ever found out his only son's 'little secret'.

His eyes snapped open when he strongly felt someone's stare on him. The teenager looked around, but it seemed that his hyperawareness of other people's presence that he had developed at school failed this time, as no one seemed to be there. The only movement he caught were the random reflections in the numerous mirrors. Nonetheless Kurt lifted himself up to go back to the front shop. Maybe his dad would be already gone to work and he could go home and start making movie plans for a sleepover at Tina. He hoped she is not going to be too disappointed that he didn't inform her about ditching school, especially after all the work she had put into making his life easier for him.

"It's your first time here, isn't it?"

The deep, pleasant voice captured Kurt's attention. Looking up at the mirror he recognized the reflection of the owner of the shop – a mildly handsome, ageless man. His hair was raven black and combed up, no signs of grey in the thick waves. His eyes were murky and depleted of any colour. Where the interior of the shop was loud and gaudy, the man was quiet and easy to miss.

Kurt turned around to face the stranger in person and nodded in reply to the earlier question. "It's not my usual place to come to. I guess the warmth tempted me as I needed to escape the weather." He waved toward the display window, behind which the heavy curtain of rain was still hitting the pavement.

"Yes. Here is so much safer," the man agreed. "And now, what do you think of the shop? Do you like magic?" he wiggled his eyebrows.

"You mean 'tricks', right?"

The owner deflated. "Teenagers these days... losing all their beliefs in the supernatural in order to appear more mature..." In a theatrical gesture he wiped a non-existent tear. "They get rid of Santa or tooth-fairy from their lives so quickly now..."

Kurt felt bad for the man for a moment, although he suspected that the exaggerated emotions seeping from him were probably a bait – this was, after all, the man's business.

"It's not that... I just get enough_ unbelievable_ crap from the real world."

"But that's when my magic should come in – for distraction and comfort!"

"Okay," Kurt finally agreed, rolling his eyes. "One... _magic_ trick."

The man smiled and for a moment his face lost the composed kindness and gleamed with triumph. But only for a moment - a split second that Kurt ignored. The owner waved and a perfect fan of cards unfolded in his hand.

The teenager smirked. "Really? You have one chance to impress me and you want to do a _card_ trick?"

The man ignored him, continuing the party-magician cliché. "Pick a card. Any card. Look at it but don't show me."

Kurt looked sceptically at the patterned backs of the cards, but reached forward, pulled out a random one and stared at the mostly white image.

"Great! Now, put..."

Kurt halted listening to the man as he was suddenly distracted by a small movement at his side – a shadow of a person skipping along the reflective surface. However, when he cast a glance in its direction he only saw his own reflection in one of the mirrors. Irritated, Kurt looked back at the card.

"I'm sorry; could you repeat the last bit?"

The man frowned, but spoke again.

"Put back the card-"

_Wake up, bud! You are going to be late to school!_

And _he_ woke up.

Above him hovered a group of teenagers of both genders that looked somehow familiar tohim, yet he was sure they had never met before. Some of them looked concerned, some of them just curious. He blinked few times and tried to clear his head from the heavy fog drowning him.

Seeing as some of the gathered people's lips moved, he forced his brain to concentrate on listening.

"Can he even hear us?" One of the girls asked, frowning. The tall guy standing next to her shrugged, uncomfortably trying to look more confident that he actually was.

The grip on his shoulder – more comforting than threatening – made him turn his attention to the side, where someone was crouching next to him.

The face he met was so close that he could see all the autumn shades in the stranger's eyes.

"Can you hear me?" the crouching boy asked.

He nodded, taking in the appearance of the stranger, who actually looked even younger than the rest of the group, but his eyes seemed more concentrated than others as though they were trying to look under his skin. Few stray dark curls hovered just above them. The face framing those piercing eyes was positively gorgeous.

"You are very handsome," He couldn't help saying – fortunately the strange boy just chuckled bashfully at that instead of getting mad, or disgusted, or both. The rest of the group only exchanged surprised looks.

"Thank you, um... Can you tell us your name?"

That question made him uneasy as he offered the closest answer he could find inside his brain.

"Ace of Hearts."

Few of the teenagers groaned.

"I swear, each new one is crazier than the previous one..." The blonde girl who had said that smirked at another girl – a short brunette. "Excluding you, of course. My ears are still ringing from your screeching."

The boy crouched by his side didn't react the same way. He frowned slightly as his gaze travelled across his face searchingly. It didn't find what it was looking for apparently, because the boy sighed and extended his hand.

"Can you stand?"

He placed his hand on the stranger's and ,with some help, stood up.

The group collectively inhaled, while the stranger just stared at him with curiosity.

"Could you not look at me like that?" He asked and that finally got some kind of reaction from the dark-haired boy. Well, he only blushed, but reaction is still a reaction.

"Are you alright?" The stranger asked tilting his head.

He was alright. He was better than alright. For the first time he wasn't worried about anything bad waiting for him behind every corner.

So he nodded and smiled. "Why shouldn't I be?"

"Do you remember your name?" The question was asked again, this time by a really tall, gentle-looking brunette.

"I already said-"

"That's not a real name." The blonde girl from earlier huffed.

"What do you mean?"

"REAL name, like... for example, I'm Quinn," the girl pointed back at herself and then turned around to introduce the group. "This is-"

"Santana." He finished for her looking at the dark-skinned girl with raven hair and stunningly angry face. Ignoring the surprised looks, he continued, to the shock of everyone there.

"Noah..." The almost shaved – save for the short mohawk - well-built guy winced. "Everyone calls me Puck," he corrected and crossed his arms.

"Brittany."

The human-sized, sweet version of a Barbie doll squealed and clapped like it was a successful parlour trick.

"Rachel." The short brunette from earlier, hearing her name consciously straightened at his attention. She actually seemed _pleased_.

"Jake." The shorter version of Noah – with rounder cheeks and more gentle posture – just stared, surprised.

"Marley." The girl hunched as if not believing anyone would know her name.

"Kitty." A blonde, perkier version of Santana rolled her eyes muttering, "Show off."

As if on a roll, he looked then at the curly-haired stranger... and fell silent.

"I'm Blaine," the boy offered quietly. "How did you know everyone's names? Do you know them?"

He shook his head. "They were written," he answered with a shrug. "Underneath their heads."

Kitty snorted. "Oh God... He's more crazy than our situation."

Blaine – how nice it was to match the face to a name, especially one that sounded so velvety – hushed Kitty angrily and looked back at him. "What do you mean underneath? Have you seen them somewhere before?"

His head hurt from all these questions. Why did they keep asking? It was so nice not to try to think. The pain must have shown on his face, because suddenly everyone's faces were filled with worry. Blaine tightened the hold on his hands. Too late – the space around him had started to tilt and the world flipped upside down.

_Wake up, kiddo! I also have to get to work – you know I have to be at – _a screeching noise attacked _his_ ears...

...and Kurt woke up again.

This time his head didn't feel like it was filled with marshmallows. His mind now was frighteningly clear and filled with dread as Kurt couldn't pinpoint where he was. Trying to move, he found himself lying on some sort of bed or sofa, wrapped tightly in a warm blanket. There was another blanket thickly folded underneath his head. Part of him wanted to go back to sleep – hoping that the vague memory of meeting a strange group of teenagers would turn out to be a dream. However, he had never felt more awake than now. His heart was beating fast and adrenaline from panic drove away the hope of falling asleep.

Kurt waited a moment for his eyes to get used to the darkness and then quietly unwrapped himself from the blankets. His bare feet touched the floor.

He was surrounded by subtle sounds – breathing, light snoring... These were the people he had met earlier. The teenagers he had never seen in his life, yet knew their names. This time, however, he also remembered his own name and he knew he had to get home.

Kurt looked around and tried to recognize where he was. With a row of tall shelves filling the darkness, the room looked like a more sinister version of the magic shop he had walked into earlier. _Of course it was that damn shop _– being in there was the last thing Kurt remembered.

He quickly scrambled off the couch. Looking around he recognized the placement of the shelves from his earlier exploration during the day and padded on his toes toward the front of the shop, ignoring the sleeping bodies on other sofas– for all he knew they could be his kidnappers. Fortunately they were extremely stupid kidnappers that had forgotten to tie their prisoner up.

As he moved stealthily, Kurt registered that something was not right about the interior surrounding him. It wasn't until he reached out to a shelf to guide himself through the darkness that he realized what was missing – the many mirrors were gone. Perhaps they were hidden for the night? But all of them? Rearranging so many mirrors every day seemed like such a waste of time...

"Kurt, don't distract yourself," the teenager chastised his own mind for wandering. "You just need to get out of here – your dad must be worried sick." The memory of their earlier fight stung his heart. Would he think that his son had run away? Will he call his friends or just leave it until the next day? Kurt's hand instantly reached his back pocket for his phone, but it was gone along with his messenger bag. His kidnappers had done something '_right_' for once.

Sliding his hand over the edges of the wooden shelves, Kurt managed to make his way in the dark to the front of the shop. The display window was covered with a curtain and the stained glass panel in the front door didn't let much light in, but at least now Kurt could make out the shapes in the darkness without worrying about bumping into anything.

The teenager padded quietly toward the door. He expected it to be locked, but it was still disappointing when the handle didn't even budge. In a growing desperation Kurt looked around and noticed a wooden umbrella basket. The durable-looking object sparked a flame of rebellion in the teenager. In one fluid motion he grabbed the rim of the basket and turned from the door toward the display window. The crash would create a lot of noise, but it would be equally loud outside and hopefully someone would even call the police. That last thought filled him with additional certainty. His arms tensed as he lifted the wooden object above his head and then Kurt threw the basket at the curtain and the glass behind it.

The loud crash filled Kurt's ears even more painfully than he had expected.

Only after a moment he realized it wasn't so much a sound, as he had been actually physically hit, the impact sending his body violently onto the floor.

"Ugh-" Kurt's groan was interrupted as he again felt a violent attack – this time a strong hand grabbed the front part of his shirt and swung him easily onto the hard surface of the front desk.

As if through the fog Kurt heard another voice and the grasp on his shirt lightened.

"...it's not his fault!" The rich tenor of the stranger from earlier – _Blaine_, supplied Kurt's brain – could be heard nearby. The teenager opened his eyes.

Kurt felt a cold shiver running along his spine as he recognized the man leaning above him. It was that creepy owner of the magic shop. The man's face was unnervingly calm-looking considering he had just thrown Kurt's body onto the counter desk like it weighed nothing. The ageless watery eyes were staring at him with little emotion, just curiosity – the patronising kind one would display while observing ants just before destroying their ant-hill.

Meanwhile, someone joined them and Kurt was relieved to find it was Blaine. The boy might have been his kidnapper as well, but at least he felt more human-like than the creepy man above Kurt.

"He didn't know... He wasn't feeling very well when he woke up, so we didn't have time to explain anything to him. Don't hurt him." Blaine looked worried sick as he added after a pause. "_Please_."

The older man thought for a moment and took a step back, his eyes still fixated on Kurt. "You should've told me that this evening. I need to know _everything_ that is out of the ordinary." he scolded in a patronising parental voice.

"It was nothing like that!" Blaine quickly denied. "He bumped his head and was too dizzy to focus on what we would tell him." The boy smoothly moved between the man and Kurt, causing the shop's owner to direct his eyes at him instead.

"It would still help me to know this. You know how I don't like to do _all this_." The man waved his hand around. "It makes me _irritated_."

Kurt could hear Blaine swallow.

"Okay," the curly-haired boy whispered. "We'll fix that. _I_ will fix that."

The owner hesitated and glanced back at Kurt. "I actually thought that perhaps a _fresh_ story might entertain me more. I would love to get to know more about this young man – I'm sure there's an interesting reason for his behaviour."

Blaine fully stepped in front of Kurt, still sprawled and confused on the top of the front desk.

"He has no idea about our deal. Give me a chance to explain it to him fully first."

"I don't like to wait." The man pouted playfully and it looked so artificially planted on his face that Kurt couldn't help shuddering at that 'collaged' effect. "I could explain myself."

"No! I mean, he was not feeling well earlier..." There was a slight desperation in Blaine's voice. Kurt had no idea what these two were talking about, but he really hoped that the short boy would win this argument. "I think it's best that he rest first – he wouldn't be an interesting conversationalist. I'll keep you company – it's been a while, hasn't it?"

There was a flicker of uncertainty in man's eyes, but it vanished as he focused again on Kurt. "You hear us? Blaine here will talk with you about our... arrangement. There is no need to panic, fight or run – I won't hurt you. You've seen the other kids already, right? Did they look hurt to you?"

Only after a moment of silence Kurt realised he was expected to answer. Unable to squeeze a voice out of his dry throat he shook his head.

The man smiled, content with that, and stepped back. Blaine took his place and leaned over the scared teenager.

"Everything will be alright," he soothed taking Kurt's arms into his hands and gently pulled the boy up. "He's really not going to hurt you. We will talk in the morning."

The soft voice and promises weren't very comforting when Kurt still felt pain throughout his body from the hit he had received just a moment earlier.

"I'm already hurt. And I don't want to be here with this psychopath– I want to go home."

Blaine winced and quickly glanced at the older man, before scooting closer. "I wish I could let you go, but I can't. Please, just trust me for now."

"But there are two of us and-" Kurt's mouth was covered by a rough-skinned hand.

"Shhhh... He might be just one person but don't underestimate him. For now – you need to sleep off the trauma your body received so far."

"I don't feel like sleeping."

"Yes, you do," Blaine retorted. "And you can sleep safely – I'll take care of that." He pulled the teenager into his arms. Normally Kurt would feel uncomfortable with the close contact – no male beside his father would ever touch him without following it with disgusted leer – but Blaine's touch felt like a relief. Kurt's eyes drooped and his head felt heavy. He could only hear an inaudible murmur of a conversation before he drowned in the darkness.

_Kurt... I know you are not sick, so I won't let you sleep instead going to school. When did you become so tardy? Wake up!_

Blaine was sitting on the floor, legs crossed. The early morning's dim light gave his dark hair warm, curly highlights. From time to time he would turn the page of a book he was reading – the quiet rustle from it being the only sound disrupting the silence.

The boy finally raised his eyes and saw that Kurt was observing him from under the blanket on the sofa.

"Hi," he said with a weak smile.

Kurt immediately noticed that Blaine had dark circles underneath his eyes and looked pale. He started frowning as he was slowly collected all the hazy memories from the previous day and night. Memories full of unanswered questions.

"I guess we need that talk now," Blaine said as if reading Kurt's mind.

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_**next chapter: House of Secrets**_


	2. House of Secrets

**AN: Second chapter! Big thanks to those who followed/favorited **

**Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 2**

**House of Secrets**

"We will talk," Kurt confirmed. "And then I am going to leave this place and go back to my dad."

Blaine's face clouded and his little smile fell. "Listen... um... how should I address you?"

"Kurt" The teenagers said.

"You... you remember?"

"Yeah, it seems the memory loss was temporary."

"But... do you remember how you introduced yourself to us?"

"The Ace of-"

Blaine hushed Kurt when he noticed that some of the other teenagers sleeping in the room started to stir in their sleep. "We better get somewhere more private."

Kurt assessed the curly-haired boy sceptically. "Go somewhere private so you can kill me or do... whatever a kidnapper would do?"

"God, no... we are only going to talk." Blaine started to stand up and closed his book. "It's either that or have the conversation with the Magician."

"The Magician?"

"The guy from yesterday."

The choice wasn't difficult: the creepy guy – _was The Magician a name or an eerie nickname?_ – or the non-threatening boy that was also pleasant to look at. Uh oh... Kurt suddenly remembered telling Blaine that he found him 'handsome'. Apparently his scrambled mind forgot to keep his owner deep in the closet. Kurt got out from the blanket cocoon and stood, ostentatiously ignoring Blaine's outreached hands to help him. Better not give the boy any more reason to get suspicious of him – who knows what might make Blaine transform from 'nice kidnapper' into a 'homophobic & nasty kidnapper'.

He stood in the same resting area he was the day before. If only he had of noticed something suspicious in here the day before... Damn, even meeting the jocks at school seemed now like a freaking tea party in comparison.

"It better be a clear explanation of why I'm here."

Blaine nodded and led Kurt to the very back of the room, to the door marked as 'staff office'. Blaine opened it, revealing a short, unlit corridor with three doors – a small white pair across from a double wooden one.

"Female and male bathrooms, kitchen," Blaine explained as if guiding the guest around his home. "Would you like to freshen up first?"

Kurt's eyebrows shot up, because he didn't know many boys nowadays use the word "freshen up." He didn't say anything about it though and moved toward the bathrooms. "I might, but I hope you are not going to go in with me to keep an eye on a 'prisoner'?"

"Uh, no." That small smile returned onto Blaine's face, making it look so gentle again . "There aren't any windows inside and no weapons to take out and hit me on the head, so... I'll be in the kitchen." Blaine opened the door on the left walking in, but leaving it open. Kurt had no doubt it was so he wouldn't be able to sneak out back to shop and make another escape attempt unnoticed.

The goth looked between the two bathrooms and, remembering his usual choice at school, he walked into the female one. When he entered it, he couldn't help noticing how domestic it felt. There were a handful of toothbrushes gathered together in crystal cups and shelves were filled with feminine toiletries. That reminded Kurt about the strange group he had met earlier. They were strangers and weirdly familiar at the same time and the boy felt unnerved by the fact that not only his situation was confusing, but apparently also his own mind. As if checking if he was still actually Kurt, the boy looked at the mirror and was presented with a miserable sight. His hair hung lifeless, the purple streaks dulled, but the worst were his eyes – the waterproof eyeliner hadn't smudged, but the black lines emphasized the dark circles shadowed around them and gave him a look of a sad panda. Kurt involuntarily groaned at the thought that this is how he probably looked to Blaine. It was a ridiculous thought though, as the most-likely-straight-boy probably didn't care how Kurt looked.

Kurt's sight wandered to the female cosmetics and soon he found a selection of creams and lotions that might just save his face from that horror on it.

When he left the bathroom after such a long he was actually surprised Blaine wasn't there tapping his foot impatiently. Instead, Kurt could hear a soft humming coming from the slightly ajar door. He entered the kitchen, not sure what to exactly expect. As with the bathroom, the spacious room looked surprisingly normal. All the wooden simple cupboards were situated on walls, the middle of the area taken up by a big dining table with numerous chairs around it. The dirty dishes in the sink, full fruit bowl and a stack of spice jars made it feel very homely. The only thing that bothered Kurt was the light that filled the kitchen. It didn't feel artificial as it bounced of the creamy walls, but there were no windows in this place. The boy looked up at the ceiling. The lamp was turned on, but didn't look strong enough to give such bright, clear light. As Kurt tried to figure this out the word 'Magician' tried to slither its way into his normally sceptical mind.

Meanwhile, Blaine was preparing the breakfast. He forgot to ask about Kurt's preference, but he figured out that the rest of the 'family' would come in sooner or later so he decided to assemble a wide variety menu.

Blaine turned around hearing the padding of the bare feet on the tiled floor. Kurt still had his yesterday's clothes on, but looked like a complete different person. The heavy contours of his make-up disappeared, uncovering a very delicate face. The eyes were still pulling focus as they were naturally big, but his cheeks seemed a bit more pinker without the contrast of the make up – although it could be also due to their recent washing. If Blaine had been intrigued by the sharp gothic allure from the moment Kurt had stepped into the shop**,** he melted at the angelic beauty in front of him.

"Kurt? I almost didn't recognize you!" he saidas he put on his most dapper smile that usually worked on _everyone_.

Kurt tugged on his distressed black chequered shirt. "The girls didn't have their make up in the bathroom, so... this is my _real_ face," he attempted to chuckle, although he sounded bitter.

"And why would you hide beneath a make-up? It doesn't look like you need it at all!"

Kurt gaped. His face betrayed the fact that he didn't hear compliments often and didn't know how to take one. "Um, it's to make a fashion statement and-" he stopped, frowning sadly.

"If you say so," Blaine decided to peacefully change the topic, but suspected there was a long story behind Kurt's gothic attire. "I made some breakfast and the coffee should be ready soon."

The curly-haired boy ushered his 'guest' toward the table. He was quite relieved that Kurt seemed to welcome his quite old-fashioned behaviour – pulling out the chair, putting the utensils in the correct order and even including a napkin to cover one's knees.

The kettle whistled and soon the faint smell of the coffee inside the press filled the room. Blaine busied himself with arranging food on the table – from bread, cheeses, tomatoes to yoghurt and muesli.

"It's also for a pack of hungry 'monsters' that will be waking up soon," he explained when Kurt frowned at the mountain of food laid out.

The teenager picked out a piece of bread and examined it carefully. "Is it drugged or something?" he asked bluntly.

Blaine sighed and took a piece from the same bread basket. He started adding a jam on top of it and made a spectacle of chewing and swallowing the sandwich. His thick eyebrows shot up at Kurt with a glint of challenge.

"Well,_ you_ would know which pieces are not tempered with," the pale teenager grumbled, but started eating, murmuring something about not caring at all at this point.

Few coffee sips later Blaine could see that as the hunger was leaving Kurt, the awareness of his situation was coming back to him. The shorter boy started his story.

"To better explain, I should probably start with what is my 'role', as I am certainly not the bad guy here. Few months ago I left my home after a slight disagreement and found this... shop. This place that welcomed me with an array of colours and made me forget all the things I was mad about. Inside, there was this man, who seemed harmless, kind. He promised to show me magic, that would make me forgot about all sorrows. Does it sound familiar?"

Kurt nodded cautiously.

"I woke up alone, with a terrible headache and no one to tell me what was going on."

Kurt stopped chewing and hastily swallowed the bread. "Are you saying... there was no one else? What about the others from yesterday?"

"They... _joined_ me much later, but they've been here for a while too."

"So you all are like me – prisoners? Why didn't you guys run away? There's a lot of you versus one guy, who honestly doesn't look that dangerous."

Blaine looked at Kurt gloomily. _You're wrong - he's deadly! _"You seem to forget that 'harmless' man easily threw you over the table and didn't even sweat."

"Oh, believe me, my spine hasn't forgotten. It's just... few months is a lot of time to find a way out."

"Or a lot of time to find out there is NO way out."

Kurt didn't feel intimidated by how Blaine's mood kept worsening.

"But it's a _shop_! There are customers coming in every day – surely you could ask them for help somehow."

Blaine let out a bitter laughter, not at Kurt though – at himself. He remembered asking the same questions when he first arrived here. He also remembered what happened when his most successfully planned escape was stopped.

"It's not worth the risk." He felt terrible for squashing this headstrong boy's hope, but it had to be done before it would be too late. Blaine was already stomaching a lot of guilt inside from lying to everyone – he could handle some more.

"So I am just to stay in this damn shop...Why? Why all of you are here?"

"The Magician... He said – and you probably will have a chance to hear the long and dramatic version of it from his mouth soon as well – He said that he managed to learn sorcery and lived for many centuries thanks to the magical powers he'd mastered. However, when his own family, consisting only of normal humans, went extinct during some sort of plague, he was struggling with loneliness, slowly losing his will to live. He never met anyone to love and eventually became mentally too old to be even remotely interested in romance. He found a way, however, to construct a place that would allow him to create a new family for himself – to care for and to keep him company. Forever."

"Company?" Kurt suddenly paled and looked like he was about to throw up, but not from the revelations about the Magician. "Oh God... Yesterday. He wanted something from me and then you stepped in instead." Kurt locked his eyes with Blaine's. They were filled with dread. "Blaine... please tell me he didn't-" he choked, unable to finish.

Blaine at first didn't know what Kurt had in mind, but then he remembered how it must have looked the night before – the vagueness of the Magician's demand, the way he protected Kurt from the task...

"Kurt," Blaine soothed, touching the taller boy's shaking wrists to steady them. "I can assure you he's not... hurting or even _touching_ anyone. When he said 'talk' he actually meant that. After you blacked out yesterday," Blaine winced inside at the white lie. _Very conveniently blacked out._ "All that happened was a conversation with him."

Kurt looked at Blaine's hands over his own with wide eyes. "Then why were you so adamant about not letting me do it?"

"You were hurt, scared, tired... I thought you should rest. I think conversations with this guy are keeping him sane, while for us it's not exactly pleasant. He needs to pretend someone might like his company and we have to pretend we enjoy confiding in him all that's happened to us – good or bad."

"He wants '_friends_'? That sounds like an overdone scenario for a cartoon villain."

"Try something closer without the fear of 'unfriending'."

"So... It's some kind of dysfunctional family with him as father figure?"

"You could say that."

Kurt removed his hands from Blaine's grip. To busy them he picked up his unfinished sandwich, but then quickly dropped it back on the plate. Blaine waited for the boy to process what he had just heard with a heavy heart. How many times still he is supposed to do this – to bring the bad news to every new person getting into this mess of a life?

Kurt picked up their conversation.

"How the hell did he choose me? I don't remember agreeing to anything."

"You probably did without really understanding what you were doing. None of us remember meeting the Magician for the first time, before waking up here."

Kurt bit his lip and Blaine knew why. He also knew the reason that boy introduced himself as Ace of Hearts when they first talked.

"You remember, though," Blaine decided to not stall that part of their conversation – they had to discuss it before the others would come, before the shop open. "You remember the game and you remember the card."

"How...?"

"Our first meeting – the phrase 'ace of hearts' was etched into your memory and you used it in place of your name. It's good the Magician doesn't know about it – he tends to get violent if something doesn't work as well as usual."

Kurt winced and Blaine wondered if the new boy was still hurt. Maybe the girls would have some spare painkillers for him."He definitely doesn't look that strong," Kurt murmured.

"He isn't. He used magic."

Kurt started laughing, surprised, as if he didn't hear the bit about the sorcery and immortality. "_Magic?_"

Blaine confirmed with a serious nod. "I don't ask you to believe now. You'll see soon enough."

"Wait, wait... you mean... like illusion, trick – right?"

"Uh, no. I mean real magic."

Kurt rolled his eyes sceptically, murmuring something about 'crazy people' and 'brainwashing'. Blaine quite expected that.

"You'll believe me soon enough," he said confidently and felt all sorts of déjà vu – the moments when all the new kids were going from 'there is no such thing as magic' to, quoting Puck, 'that shit's real!"

Okay, except Brittney – she stated they were all enchanted by an evil magical frog from the very beginning and said that Blaine doesn't need to explain anything to her. He didn't and she still seemed to take in everything just fine.

Meanwhile, Kurt was in denial. "He_ can't_ keep us here forever! I mean, we would grow up and obviously that stupid family game would be over!"

"He actually _can_ keep us forever. As long as you are under his spell your age won't change. Well – not physically."

"I don't remember agreeing to any spell put on me!" Kurt groaned. "This is crazy... I'm talking now logistics about being cursed."

Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from behind the door. It seemed others were waking up.

Kurt sat straight, no doubt bracing himself to face the rest of the kids. Blaine wasn't happy that the rest of their discussion needed to be had in front of the others. Before that, however, he had to ensure one thing...

"Don't remind the rest about the 'card' thing, okay?" He leaned forward as his voice quietened to just a whisper. "At least until we'll get some privacy again to talk about this further. Oh, and, God forbid, _DO NOT _tell the Magician about it. Let that be our little secret for now."

Kurt looked a bit flushed as he nodded, but he seemed to be sincere in agreeing to keep a secret. The pale boy opened his mouth, but before he could add or ask anything, the door opened and into the kitchen marched Quinn, followed closely by Santana and Brittney. They sashayed toward the fridge to take out a jug with fresh orange juice.

"Is he still talking crazy?" Quinn asked Blaine. The curly-haired boy frowned at the girl's rudeness and opened his mouth to answer, but was cut in by Kurt.

"No, he is not," the pale teenager scowled at the female trio. "He also is capable of answering questions himself, so he would prefer to be addressed directly."

Blaine didn't bother to hide his grin. He really liked that despite delicate, almost feminine features, Kurt was everything but timid. It was about time the Unholy Trinity found their equal.

Quinn looked at Kurt sharply, assessing if she should treat him like an enemy or just a 'sparring partner'. Santana mimicked her, but Brittany walked toward Kurt with clear interest instead . Always blunt and ignoring concepts like personal space, she poked the boy's cheek.

"It's soft like creampuff!" she exclaimed smiling at bewildered Kurt. "I like your skin. Can I kiss it?"

Santana squinted at Kurt while Blaine started to stand up. "Brittany..."

"I'm sorry," Kurt said by instinct as he tried to as delicately as possible to push the girl away. "You can't. I'm... I...," he stuttered. "I have a girlfriend."

Blaine coughed as he tried to cover his reaction. _A girlfriend?!_ There went Blaine's shy hopes sparked by his first meeting with Kurt. _But... He said I'm handsome! How..._ That felt so unfair, yet Blaine could hardly blame Kurt. _Straight and in a relationship._

"What if I ask her?" Brittany insisted, but kept her distance."Where is she?"

"She's probably at her home at the moment," Kurt answered. He looked extremely uncomfortable, Blaine noted.

"Then she can't be your girlfriend," Brittany decided with a winning smile. "Because you are not together anymore."

"Brittany..." This time it was Santana, who decided to stop the girl.

Blaine kept looking at Kurt, whose face was showing so many different emotions at the moment it was difficult to guess what he was thinking. Longing for his friends and real family?

Kurt didn't answer Brittany. And as the kitchen started to fill with other teenagers he was answering shortly, if at all to any questions. Some, like Puck, didn't care much about the newest member of the 'family', but most did show some consideration and didn't push him into their conversation. They were discussing all their usual topics – from new movies the Magician got them to watch on a small TV set on a kitchen counter to what they were going to do today.

Even talking with others, Blaine hadn't stopped observing Kurt with anticipation. He didn't have to wait too long for the new boy to snap.

Kurt slammed the cup onto the table.

"Why... How can you just talk normally like you are? You just agree to be kept here like pets, playing 'house'? Why aren't you all trying to find a way to escape?"

The teenagers looked at him with hostility.

"Didn't Blaine explain it to you?" Santana growled. "We've been here at least few weeks, some much longer – you think we didn't cover every possible chance to get out?"

Puck started to list. "No windows at the back, completely blocked out front..."

"Okay, okay, I understand – the place is a colourful, cuddly Alcatraz." Kurt interrupted him. "But ... it is still a shop, right? The place that has customers – if you'd let any of them know you are kept here..."

"It's not that easy, Kurt," Marley said, her whisper barely reached Kurt. "You can't-"

"Nononono!" Rachel shrieked suddenly, causing everyone to cover their ears and check their glasses for any cracks. "You can't tell him!"

"Why not?"

"Because he has to SEE IT! Not be TOLD about it."

Marley was confused. "What's the difference?"

Rachel looked at the taller brunette with superiority. "You have zero flare for drama in you – for the effect, of course! Blaine!" She whipped her head around, startling the curly-haired boy. "Is it going to be soon?"

Blaine checked the watch. "Yeah, but I think that Marley is ri-" Rachel grabbed his hands forcefully.

"Blaine. If you value our friendship, you have to allow me to lead on this." Her eyes were bugging out in excitement and Blaine found himself agreeing, but at the same time feeling bad for Kurt to be a victim of this girl's love for theatricality and drama.

Rachel jumped at Kurt and started to drag the poor boy from the table.

"What the..." he looked around, looking for help. His eyes fell on Blaine, who had the decency to blush guiltily.

"You'll be fine, Kurt. Eventually," he murmured.

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**next chapter: House of Smoke and Mirrors**


	3. House of Smoke and Mirrors

**AN: aaaand the next chapter with The Magician being creepy in '300's' Herxes style- Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 3**

**House of Smoke and Mirrors**

Rachel pushed Kurt through the small corridor out into the shop's main floor. The pale boy felt like he was being carried by an ocean wave as the girl was a true force of nature.

They entered the shop's main area. Despite the lack of windows it was very bright. Well, not really lack of windows – just their location as Kurt spotted huge skylights at the top of the shop, bringing in the cool morning light.

"Almost there, almost there..." Rachel ushered Kurt to the centre of the shop. It was hard to believe that the brunette shared her fate with Kurt as a prisoner. She looked way too cheerful and spirited. What Kurt had gathered from the breakfast talk was that before his arrival Rachel had been the newest addition to the Magician's 'family'. Santana had commented that by capturing her the Magician actually did the 'outside world' a favour.

Looking ahead, Kurt inhaled sharply – right in front of him, just a couple of metres apart, was the front door to the shop. The teenager tried to focus his hearing, longing to hear any street noise. Instead, he was greeted by the thin silhouette of the man that he both hated and feared – the Magician. The man walked through the shop, humming betraying his good mood, as if he already forgotten the stressful night.

_Walk away walk away walk- _

"Good morning, Rachel, good morning..." _Damn it._

"Good morning," Rachel said quickly. "This is Kurt."

"Oh, yes," the Magician looked more like the first time he had talked to Kurt – kind, well-mannered. "Came to see the opening?"

"Yes!" Rachel immediately answered, not allowing Kurt to utter even a word. "I think that experiencing it is worth more than thousand words describing it."

Kurt looked at the girl with surprise. Compared to earlier her voice sounded very monotone, even though it was still loud. The Magician didn't apparently notice anything wrong with that as he nodded approvingly and walked away from them to open the front door and flip the 'open/closed' sign on the outside. Kurt tried to catch a glimpse of the street, but the shop owner's body fully blocked the view.

"Oh, Kurt, this will be good – I nearly freaked out when I saw it." Rachel squeezed Kurt's shoulders, not noticing the boy's discomfort.

The Magician pushed the door back, but without locking it and moved to the right, where the front desk was situated.

"So this is it?" Kurt snarled and went to move away from Rachel, but the girl clawed into his shoulder.

"Of course it's not! Be patient, let the tension build up!"

Kurt rolled his eyes and couldn't help wondering if she was always like that or if this place did something to her brain. _Like it did to mine_, he added in his thoughts referring to his memory issues.

The light jingle heralded the first customer of the day. As a punk girl strutted inside, Kurt started to have a really bad feeling about it. The Magician is going to simply just let her see his prisoners? Or maybe he didn't care because somehow he already decided to make that new customer a prisoner as well?

The girl was walking toward Kurt and Rachel, looking right at them. She would gaze to her right or left from time to time to check something closer on any shelf. When she was just a few steps from Kurt, the boy leaned forward and whispered urgently.

"It may sound weird, but it would be better for you to leave here as soon as possible and call the po-"

Kurt halted, bewildered, as the punk girl completely ignored him, walking by to see closer a collection of fake fingers in different gestures on the shelf just behind the boy.

"You have to listen to me!" Kurt seethed and moved his hand to grab the girl.

Except he couldn't. He couldn't even touch her. It felt like watching these documentary movies at cinema in 3D – you think you could just grab these little fish in the ocean, that they are just in front of you, but your hand only grasps empty space. Kurt's fingers bent in a fist and straightened back when they didn't manage to even touch anything. The customer kept ignoring all his attempts to get her attention.

"She... How...?" Kurt gaped. The facts flooded his mind – that girl couldn't see him, couldn't touch him. It was like he didn't exist to her. So absorbed by his failure to get help he almost jumped when he heard an excited cry next to his ear.

"See?! See?! Oh God, your face is priceless!"

Well, if the girl managed to ignore Rachel's glass-shattering voice as well that sealed it – they were somehow camouflaged to the people from outside.

Kurt spin to face Rachel and instantly anger boiled in him seeing her so satisfied at his expense.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" he spat, vaguely hearing nearing footsteps – the customer or one of the other teenagers? "That was what you meant by 'drama'? Allowing me to have hope of rescue and then just to destroy it in the most cruel way?"

"What? No – I really thought that would be the best way!" Rachel tried to reach to Kurt. Her confused face seemed genuine. "In movies they always SHOW this stuff."

The pale boy crossed his arms in front of him. "I could do without visuals."

"But-"

"It's okay, Rachel," said another voice.

_Of, course it's Blaine_, Kurt thought bitterly seeing the boy stop next to him. _The only voice of reason here._

"Blaine... He didn't like it!" Rachel whined. "I just- I wanted it to be perfect!"

Blaine rubbed her shoulders. "I know, Rach. Kurt also knows," He sent a quick apologetic glance at Kurt, who was still pissed. "You know what? After the big, strong reveal there is always that nerdy guy who explains everything, right? I think if we do it now it _will_ be perfect."

Rachel stopped mid-sniff, perking up again. "Of course! You are right!"

"Kuuuurt." Rachel latched back onto the boy who felt like he couldn't possibly understand any less about what was going on. "You know like in television there are many channels? There are the public ones that everyone can watch, right? And then there are the private ones that you need to pay extra to have access to, right?"

Okay, so he could understand even less.

"Yeah, so?" Kurt hesitated for a moment, but it wasn't like him to just answer shortly, so he added. "Are you actually insane or is this leading somewhere?"

"We are on the private channel!" Rachel's eyes beamed with pride as if she was a celebrity on said 'channel'.

"Surprisingly, it's actually the closest description of how it works," Blaine tried to overtake the explanation. "It seems that to exist eternally one has to partially separate himself from the influence of the outside world."

"But I can still touch the shelves and everything!" Kurt moved his hands along the wooden bookshelf edge next to him.

"That's what I meant by 'partially'. We can see, hear and touch glimpses of the normal... um... you could call it a dimension of sorts."

"Like a hologram, but with a touch sensation..." Kurt looked around, thoughtful. "Do the mirrors have anything to do with this?"

Blaine was clearly surprised. "You remembered the mirrors? Only Brittney and Kitty got it on their own, because they've been constantly checking themselves in them when they arrived."

"I like analysing the interior design," Kurt said quickly, hoping that a guiltily blush wouldn't betray that yes, he had been paying attention to his own reflection. "Last night I thought that they were just taken out, but that would be illogical."

"That's because they are still there!" Rachel added. "They are like a one way window to the interior of the real shop. We are in a shop within a shop! Well, that's what Blaine told me..."

Upon her words Kurt looked studiously at the curly-haired boy. So far, all his knowledge came from him and it seemed that others' as well. "You know a lot about how this all works," He mused. "Did you figure it by yourself or is the Magician so quick to share his trade secrets?"

Blaine's thick eyebrows furrowed for a moment. "Both. You just need to keep your eyes and mind... _sharp_," He said cautiously and then added. "Like you about the mirrors."

"That was only a guess." Kurt looked around once again searching for any signs of the mirrors standing there – a shadow or a scratches on the floor. He found nothing and then couldn't help a soft chuckle.

"So even true magicians use smoke and mirrors."

"What?" Blaine didn't understand the reference at first.

"Smoke and mirrors," Kurt repeated, waving his hand around the shop alley. He got a bit too excited with the comparison. "That's how the illusionists deceive their audience – by manipulation of the reflection and the distraction from the smoke."

Blaine slowly nodded and Kurt again felt the dark-haired boy's intense stare on his face, almost making him missing his make-up 'shield'.

"So we know what he uses the mirrors for - I wonder about the smoke then," he said, mostly to stop Blaine from just silently _staring_ at him.

The dark-haired boy opened him mouth to respond as Rachel shrilled painfully.

"Watch out for the- !" – followed by a loud, high-pitched whistle.

Kurt whipped his head toward the source of the sound and would probably have just stood there cemented to the floor if Blaine hadn't of pushed him into the bookshelf, flattening them both against it.

Something flew past them through the middle of the corridor, made a sharp turn up and exploded into a noisy cloud of paper confetti.

Kurt watched with wide eyes as the fluttering paper bits landed practically everywhere.

"I bet it's Puck," Rachel moaned nearby.

Something tickled Kurt's cheek and the boy wrenched his eyes from the rainbow 'snow' to turn and discover it was a dark curl, with a few pink and red confetti stuck in it.

"Blaine," Kurt wriggled himself from under Blaine's arm.

"You okay?" The curls retreated and Kurt could see now Blaine's face in close-up. It wasn't until now that Kurt noticed Blaine to be a bit shorter than him. The brown eyes looked up from under thick eyelashes.

"I'm internally freaking out, but I'm okay," Kurt admitted in a hoarse whisper. The impact with the shelf earlier punched his breath out of him. "What was that? I thought we weren't supposed to be killed?"

Blaine swallowed. "We are not. It's just Puck trying out the most hazardous equipment he could find here. He and Jake might very well be the world's most dangerous inventors." He smiled weakly.

"They will be soon _dead_ inventors for what they did to my clothes," Rachel furiously patted her dress to get rid of the confetti. Kurt could barely stomach her toddler lemon and teal dress on its own and was sure even the confetti couldn't make it look any worse. "I think it might be time for me to speak more sternly to them!" She moved to strut into a parallel alley – where there came muffled male laughter.

Blaine pushed himself further from Kurt's side. "Rachel, leave them be – at least they'll behave like brothers now instead of jumping down each other's throats." However, Rachel had already disappeared between shelves. Blaine swore and took a few steps follow her.

Then he stopped and turned around, startling Kurt with a determined face.

"Kurt, I really don't want you to get into trouble, so keep your head low and don't even come close to the front door, promise?"

"Promise," Kurt agreed, but knew he would break it at the first chance to get out of here.

Blaine clearly had the suspicions about the promise as well, but shifted on his feet to go toward the arguing voices getting louder.

...Just to stop again and turn back.

"And don't do anything stupid," He was now whispering. "It would be good if you could avoid the Magician until we have that private talk later."

"Got it – now go before Rachel breaks all the glass around her with her voice." Kurt's lips curled slightly.

"Right..."

Kurt almost laughed loudly when Blaine only managed to twist his upper body in a turn before _yet again_ coming back. However, the smirk froze on his face, when Blaine this time crowded into him, his hand reaching Kurt's cheek in an intimate gesture.

_Ohmygodwhatishedoing-_

The fingers brushed lightly at the corner of Kurt's lips and then they were gone.

"You had a confetti piece on your face," Blaine explained and waved his hand. His thumb and index finger held a bit of silver paper. He left quickly and ran away from Kurt and his hammering heart.

"You... jerk," Kurt mumbled.

Still with the arguing voices in the background – now with the addition of a peaceful, warm tenor – Kurt looked at the shop more attentively. It looked exactly the same as the 'real' one – the products looked the same, although judging by Puck's toy they might be more effective and capable of creating a more stunning magic – they were, after all, created from a spell.

Already breaking his promise to Blaine, Kurt walked further toward the front of the shop. At the end of the bookshelf he spied from behind the stacks of newly arrived boxes at the front desk. The Magician was busy with explaining something to a middle-aged customer. They laughed together while contemplating what strange objects could be hidden in the double padding of the tacky top hat. It was disgusting to see how naturally kind the shop owner looked now. No one would probably guess that he was regularly kidnapping teenagers. Also, even if Police could get a search warrant and turned the place upside down it's not like they would find them anyway. _Still – it would be comforting to at least know that they are looking for us_, Kurt thought.

There was another ruckus at the back of the shop. At first Kurt thought it was more of Puck's and Jake's craziness, but the noise startled the normal customers as well, so it must have been a 'real world' accident. The Magician closed the cash register built in the desk and went to check what had happened deeper into the shopping area.

Kurt was so surprised with the sudden opportunity, that he didn't think to use that chance at first. With another jingle signalling a new patron, a plan started formulate inside his head. He looked at the alley the Magician had disappeared into. There were few customers gathered there, watching, so the accident must have been pretty big. The shop owner himself couldn't be seen, so Kurt guessed he was surrounded by the small crowd gathered over there.

The pale boy moved closer to the front door. He remembered the night incident and halted, not exactly sure if the attack he suffered had come directly from the Magician or from some defences put on the shop itself. In the end that didn't matter, because Kurt figured out he wouldn't even need to touch the handle. All he had to do was to wait for another client to enter the shop and then exit through. Kurt wondered if he would just go through the entering person or if the reality would squeeze him in between.

The closer he got to the exit the heavier his stomach felt. Would the shop let him go that easily?

As soon as that doubt entered his mind he got his answer in the form of two heavy hands landing on his shoulder. Someone was standing right behind him.

The long fingers drummed on his skin and Kurt was sure it wasn't Blaine or any of the kids.

"We have beautiful weather today, don't we?" The pleasant voice made Kurt nauseous and the boy chose to nod instead answering.

"You would like to play outside, right? The shop lacks that fresh air..."

_Is there actually a longing in the Magician's voice or is this some kind of game? _

The fingers delicately pushed Kurt forward, toward the exit.

"You want to leave? I won't stop you now – you can try."

_Try_, Kurt repeated in his thoughts. _So there would be something preventing me from leaving._

Under the pressure of the hands he took few steps forward. Nothing in front of him seemingly changed, but despite this, he shivered in pure fear.

"I'll let you on a little secret," The Magician continued. "When you woke me up last night, throwing you on that desk was the only thing _I_ did."

_So there was some kind of spell or defence connected to the display window, and more than likely to the entrance as well. _Kurt stopped and straightened his shoulders to resist the push. His body still remembered the painful landing on the floor.

For a moment Kurt was afraid that the Magician would continue to pressure him forward, but the hands just squeezed his shoulder for a moment before retreating. Kurt closed his eyes and didn't turn around, just stood there, straight and tense.

"I got you some clothes to change into and some personal stuff I thought you might need – it's at the back of the shop. Please let me know if you need anything else. Now, run along, kid." There was an awkward pat on Kurt's shoulders and the man returned to the front desk.

Kurt sat on a sofa after a long, scalding shower. He was supposed to join everyone at dinner – fortunately it seemed that they didn't have to share their meals with the Magician – but he still needed few moments to himself.

His hands were shaking, but not because he was scared.

He was _livid_.

The Magician called him a 'kid' and attempted some kind of grotesque caricature of a parental lesson. The explanation of the last night's attack successfully put Kurt off going anywhere near the front door, at least for now, and the boy had a feeling it was a lesson that the others had to go through as well.

However, he was not going to back down – he had to get home somehow. Without him, his dad was probably eating really unhealthily, his best friend was left alone to defend herself from the jocks...

Kurt rubbed his face, massaging away the returning headache. He knew he had to be extremely focused from now on, to not miss the opportunity of finding the way out. That meant also no stupid friendship with the others, who clearly had already started to get used to their situation.

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**next chapter: House of Arguments **


	4. House of Arguments

**AN: Welcome to new followers! Enjoy the 4th chapter in which we meet a certain detective...**

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**Chapter 4**

**House of Arguments**

Blaine knew something was wrong with Kurt the moment he saw the boy emerging from the bathroom the next morning. His clothes were mostly in radiant colours – up until now the Magician would conjure a wardrobe that would match more or less the recipient's taste, so Blaine figured out that bright colours were Kurt's hidden pleasure – however, the goth make up was back.

Kurt threw the eyeliner back to Santana, with whom the pale teenager had struck a weird camaraderie, so Blaine tried to ask her about it against his better judgement. She looked at him in amusement.

"Did you think that he would change his make-up habits just because you prefer him china doll-faced?" Her crooked smile showed challenge.

"No, just... He didn't look like he missed wearing make-up yesterday."

"Blaine, if you are going to say something along 'he looked happier' I'm seriously going to shave off your eyebrows while you sleep, even if it took me a whole night."

Santana looked down at the eye liner in her hand. "He didn't look like he had a lot of practice in doing that," she contemplated. "Probably had his _girlfriend_ do it for him during their make-over dates."

"You mean make-_out _dates." Blaine corrected her while trying really hard not to picture either option in his head. Damn, it was like going through puberty and discovering himself once again.

Santana practically gleamed with evil delight. "Sure. Why not. Are you going to find him and try being 'friends' again? After all, you just can't stand if someone doesn't immediately like you."

Blaine frowned at the girl and decided that from now on he had to be more careful around her. Santana had a mind equally sharp to her tongue, which could be both useful and dangerous.

"Yes, I'm going to try to befriend him, but that will be so I could help him. I want him to be well prepared for the conversation with the Magician, whenever that will happen."

Santana lost some of her aggressive confidence – Blaine knew it was due to the reminder of the day before and_ her_ talk to the shop owner. That seemed to happen more often now and Blaine knew it meant something was bothering her _here_ in the shop.

Still, her voice didn't betray anything was wrong. "If you see him, tell him to try to squeeze his toiletries in the bathroom – we hardly had any space as it was."

"He... uses your bathroom? Are you and other girls alright with it?"

"More than alright to see him emerging only in a towel from the shower," Santana purred cruelly. "At the same time he doesn't even glance at us and the cleaning rota will be even bigger now."

Blaine thought for a moment, before asking in a low voice. "Do you... do you think he might be not totally straight? I know about the girlfriend, but you know... he might be bi, right? I mean, you were the only one to immediately figure me out, so I thought you would know..."

Santana stared at him, slowly blinking. "He's totally straight, Blainey-boy. Now go away – I don't want to be your shoulder to cry on over a hopeless crush." She sank into the sofa she was sitting on and crossed her arms around her defensively. The usually meant she didn't want to disrupted no more.

Defeated, Blaine went to look for Kurt with a lot less enthusiasm than before. His disappointment from the day before returned, which caused him to be more irritated than necessary with Kurt when he saw the newly made up teenager spying on the front of the shop.

Kurt leaned on the wall opposite to the front desk. Behind him hung a massive poster advertising a performance of the fire-swallower Madame Tibideaux. The majority of the image was covered in flames, which created an interesting blazing aura around Kurt's concentrated face.

Concealed behind the manikins dressed in black cheap suits he observed the door like a hawk every time someone would open it and every interaction of the Magician with the customers. Even if the shop owner noticed the blue eyes watching him, he was ignoring them completely – not surprising, considering there wasn't anything for Kurt to see there.

Blaine clenched his teeth. He had told Kurt on every occasion not to get himself into trouble, but the damn boy was a stubborn mule that would never learn. He also shouldn't look that good – long legs in purple jeans crossed at ankles, eyes turning to green from concentrating, elegant profile, silhouette engulfed in the poster fire – Blaine wanted nothing more than to disrupt that perfect image.

A few more steps and all that Blaine had to do was to place his hand heavily on Kurt's shoulder. The boy gasped, whipping his head toward the curly-haired boy. The visible panic in Kurt's eyes quickly changed to irritation as he looked down at Blaine – _it's unfair that he is taller than me while being younger _– and yanked Blaine's hand off his shoulder.

"Don't do that again," the pale boy hissed, clearly not wanting The Magician to hear them talking.

"Do what? Making sure you don't do anything stupid?" Blaine whispered his reply as he also preferred their meeting to be private.

"No – I meant the sudden touching. It's creepy."

Blaine only then noticed the goose bumps on Kurt's arms and felt like an immature jerk. "Are you alright, Kurt?"

The taller boy rubbed his wrists and the skin around them. "Everything's peachy. I'm busy though – don't you have someone else to _explain things_ to perhaps?"

_So this is how it's going to be? _Blaine welcomed the snark as it at least helped him like Kurt less.

"Busy with what? You are not getting out through the front door – it's just going to push you away like last night. Even if someone would op-"

"I know," Kurt interrupted him coldly. "The spell is keeping us away from the entrance even when the Magician is not there."

"How-"

"_He_ told me. He even encouraged me to try it out. Bastard."

_Oh..._ Exactly what Blaine had wanted to avoid.

"He told you to try?" he repeated. "I bet he caught you sneaking then."

Kurt's silence confirmed that. Blaine's blood ran cold. The _damn_ boy didn't know how important it was for him to stay quiet.

"Did he ask _you_ anything?"

"Like what?"

"Kurt, this is really important." He made a gesture to grab the taller boy's arms, but stopped so as to not cause him discomfort. "Remember the first, _first_ time you woke up?"

"Yes?" Kurt's voice followed Blaine's in getting lower and quieter.

"The whole thing about the card trick, the name of the card, temporarily forgetting your own name... It means the spell you were put under didn't work properly at first. You weren't meant to remember any of these – only entering the shop."

Kurt thoughtfully bit his lip and Blaine mentally cursed him for even doing such a simple thing adorably.

"There is also the fact that I knew everyone's – _almost_ everyone's name."

Blaine shook his head. "I don't think that's relevant."

"When did you became an authority on what is relevant and what's not? It happened to _me_."

Blaine almost smiled thinking how Kurt's face would look in a moment...

"Queen of Spades," he whispered smugly and wasn't disappointed when the taller boy gaped, eyes wide open.

"You... this happened to you as well?" Kurt in excitement leaned closer.

"Yes, but it took me some time to figure why-"

Their conversation was interrupted – it was annoying how it kept happening - by the jingle and heavy steps as the shop was entered by a peculiar patron. At first sight he looked like a common blue collar worker. He had a solid posture, dishevelled coat on him and a round face that might've look kind-hearted if it wasn't for his pale eyes that looked around the shop with the mix of desperation and suspicion.

He wasn't the strangest of the customers walking in, but he had a certain air about him – of hidden intelligence and authority that made Kurt and Blaine pause their conversation and watch as the man walked toward the front desk, while glancing around as if studying the place.

"How can I help you?" The shop owner asked, clearly trying to read the customer in front of him.

"You have lot of kids coming here, right?" The man's voice was calm and commanding.

"...Yes?"

"Well, I'm looking for a few in particular."

The Magician narrowed his eyes. "I don't know what you expected, but we don't do trafficking-"

"Wha- That's not what I meant! Damn it, I keep forgetting..." The man searched in the pocket of his jacket and took out a black, leather object that he opened like a wallet.

"Oh, you are a detective..." The owner tried to put a relieved expression on his face, but Kurt and Blaine knew better.

"He's totally panicking," Kurt smiled with satisfaction, stretching his neck to see better from behind the manikin. Blaine kept pushing him back into their hiding place.

"Hmm... these 'kids'... you think it's about u- some of us?"

The taller boy shrugged. "I hope so, but you guys have been here for a while, right? And I never told anyone where I was going. At least I don't remember it."

Meanwhile, the detective reached to his pocket and took out some wrinkled papers. He plastered the loose pages onto the counter. "Have you seen any of them?"

The Magician only gazed at the photographs printed out with text underneath – he knew the faces on them very well.

"It's us! It's us!" Kurt clasped his hands. "Let's go closer so we can check if everyone is there!"

"No!" Blaine violently grabbed the troublesome boy's sleeve. "You really don't want to be near the Magician when something doesn't go his way."

Kurt sighed. "Okay... but still – it's some hope that the investigation led this guy here!"

"Or he's just checking randomly." Blaine crossed arms over his chest. He believed for so long that there was no escape from their prison that he didn't want to open himself to any hope just yet.

"I can't say I've seen them," The Magician's voice dripped with sympathy.

The detective visibly sagged, the hope fading away from his face added to him. He reached for the papers to take them back and his fingers ghosted the photo of a fair skinned teenager beaming at him.

"Even so, we can't let him leave with nothing!" said the real version of that boy.

Blaine paled at the sight of Kurt's face – focused, sparkly eyes and eyebrows frowning with determination – and knew, just knew that the boy was going to do something crazy. Before he could do anything to stop it, though, Kurt surged forward and shouted.

"We are here! We are all here!"

Then, like a chain of events - the Magician heard the shout and while he had enough self-control not to react strongly to that, his face twitched. The detective stilled – did he notice the tick? – and for a moment both men stood there quietly, measuring each other.

"I'll come back later, perhaps. Some of the kids disappeared a while ago, but that one-" he poked the photo on top- "is very recent and he might yet show up."

"I wouldn't want you to trouble yourself." The Magician's voice all politeness and servitude. "I will call the Police the moment I'll see that young man or any others."

The detective shook his head. "It's not a problem – I'm going to do the same with every business in this town."

"Well, good luck then, detective...?" The shop's owner extended his hand that was firmly captured in the visitor's grip.

"Burt Hummel."

"Right... detective Hummel." The Magician glanced at the stack of photos. "I see your reasons now."

Burt murmured something and moved toward the door. The Magician watched as he left the shop and then firmly walked towards two hiding teenagers.

Kurt's eyes widened and Blaine guessed that he could finally spot something that hinted the existence of the two dimensions and the workings of the spell - warped floor pattern, dimmed colours around the shop owner as he neared.

"Boys... do you know who that was?"

Both Kurt and Blaine flinched at the man's tone.

"A Police investigator looking for us," Kurt answered.

The Magician narrowed his eyes. "Yes... and he was already going to leave when you decided to try to get his attention. Not that it would work."

He studied for a moment the pale rebel. "I think you've had your time to adjust. You will stay here at the front until the evening, so you don't have any more influence on your _family_. After closing you and I will _talk_."

Blaine, who had been quiet until now, spoke quickly.

"No, no... It's too early! I can-"

His hand was squeezed by Kurt. "It's okay, Blaine."

The shorter boy looked up, surprised by Kurt's sudden tenderness when just a moment ago they had been arguing, but the boy had already turned his head away.

Blaine knew it was stupid, the need to protect Kurt from what each of the resident kids had gone through and safely survived. However, part of him knew that the private conversations with the Magician were making changes in them – irreversible tears and holes in their minds.

"Kurt, just..."

The boy halted and looked at Blaine for a moment, his face a mask while he directed a small nod at the shorter boy. Their eyes connected and Blaine was sure that whatever would happen, Kurt would keep the secret about their cards.

* * *

Kurt had never felt quite as terrified as during those few hours he spent sitting in a chair by the front desk, next to the Magician with his false kindness, watery shrewd eyes and spider fingers. Kurt shuddered from the memory of their touch on his shoulder.

After the initial revulsion Kurt decided to use the time spent at the front to continue his observations. However, the smirk on the Magician's face told him, that his 'investigation' wasn't very secret and having Kurt so close was to show that there was simply nothing for him to find out.

Soon Kurt grew tired of trying to find anything useful to him and was looking through the sale products on the front desk. They were trinkets, little tricks easy to understand by every child.

What made Kurt eyebrows rise were the tricks consisting only of instructions on how to do it. _Well, so even the dumbest person could be a stage magician_, Kurt thought as he flipped through the magician's bread-and-butter – cards that were somehow altered with little markers or could be flipped and folded into another card altogether.

Sometimes he would hear or catch a glimpse of some of the other prisoners – although never Blaine - but none of them would come closer and even when Kurt assured the Magician he just wanted to use a bathroom, the man pointed at the door behind him with a knowing smile – a bathroom for patrons.

The closer the evening came the clearer it became to Kurt that while he had great displeasure in watching the Magician up close, the man had examined _him _as well. He started to control himself better, but wondered if he had already done something that the shop owner would use against him later. He tried to remember what others had mentioned about this infamous 'talk', but everyone had hardly spoken more than a sentence what it was about.

Still drowning in his thoughts, Kurt hadn't realised the terrible day was coming to a close until he heard a key clatter in the lock. The Magician was closing the door slowly, as if relishing in the anticipation of what would soon happen.

When the ageless face turned back to Kurt, the teenager felt his stomach grumbling. He hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, but he would rather starve than ask the Magician for anything.

"I think it's time, no?" The man walked back to the desk, the artificial lights dimmed in his wake. By the time he was at the counter they were surrounded by darkness. The only source of light was a small fin de siècle stained-glass lamp on the desk.

Gesturing for Kurt to remain seated, the Magician pulled his chair from behind the desk and hauled it to the front, to sit facing the rebellious teenager. With one sweep he cleared the middle of the counter between them and then pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket.

Kurt was thankful to Blaine for warning him and to himself for keeping calm as he managed to hide that he recognized the card deck. It wouldn't hurt, though, to make sure the Magician wouldn't get any ideas.

"Is that a tarot deck? Are you going to read my future?" Kurt teased – very proud that there was no tremble in his voice – even though he knew these were the playing cards.

"I don't do tarot," The Magician wrinkled his nose as if that would be way beneath him. "It only suits the fortune tellers at village fairs – to be told the future by cards." He opened the box and pulled out the thick stack. "The true power lies in _you_ telling the cards what future you want."

The man shuffled the cards with the grace of a casino dealer. Kurt felt his stomach rumble again and hoped that no matter what game they were going to play it would end quickly, so he could grab something to eat soon.

The Magician started to lay out the cards. Despite his earlier objections they started to look like a tarot schema. The long fingers were so quick that Kurt couldn't see what cards were underneath, but the Magician stopped with two cards placed top up – the Ace of Hearts and the King of Hearts. Kurt kept his face steady as he recognized the same design of the card from the trick that got him here.

The magician suddenly spoke.

"Okay, we need a test first. What is your name?"

Kurt hesitated for a moment – he didn't want to be caught up in another spell – but the Magician's eyes shone too dangerously to be ignored. Besides, he found himself _wanting_ to answer.

"...Kurt."

"Kurt who?"

"What do you mean? Just Kurt."

The questions continued.

"Do you have parents?"

"I live with my dad."

"Hmm... What do you call him?"

"'Dad', of course."

"What does he do?"

Kurt tilted his head questioningly. Was that a trick? How was he supposed to know what was he doing now. Normally it would be watch TV and smuggle unhealthy food in, but now he was probably worried about his son.

The Magician nodded with a small smile. "What happened before you came here?"

Kurt wasn't sure how much he was supposed to remember before the 'pick-a-card' part, so he decided on a different approach. "I didn't want to go to school that day and I... didn't exactly want to go back home."

"And why was that?"

Kurt looked down on the table and his eyes were drawn toward the King of Hearts. The stern look of the person printed on it looked vaguely familiar, including the disappointment etched on its face.

"We had an argument that morning."

"Oh..." The shop owner's curiosity was piqued. "Try to remember more. Where was that? What was your father wearing? What started this? What weather was outside the window?"

* * *

**_"Why do you need that?"_**

**_Kurt rolled his eyes. "I'm a teenager now. I should be allowed some privacy in my home."_**

**_"That is what the door is for, bud, and you know I always knock. Well, mostly. Besides, what would you have to hide, huh?"_**

**_Kurt fought the embarrassing blush creeping up his neck. Judging from the teasing tone his father probably thought he wanted to freely explore internet porn, or smuggle a girl to his room. The teenager wondered how fast the teasing would change into anger if he would just admit he didn't want his father to walk into his room and discover his collection of various gay magazines or to see the _****interesting****_ websites he was researching. Kurt's room was supposed to be his safe place and he didn't want to worry all the time if there would be any visible hint betraying his secret._**

**_"I'm not hiding anything. I just want to be comfortable, but I see you don't trust me!" Kurt knew the attack would be the best defence. _**

**_"I trust you, son, but if you feel uncomfortable with anything you need to talk to me instead of isolating yourself from me. We're supposed to be a team!"_**

**_Kurt almost shouted that he actually 'played for the other team', but instead he said the second worst thing._**

**_"We haven't been really a team since mom!" _**

"And what did he do then?" The Magician's voice buzzed in his ear. It sounded genuinely curious.

"I was already running late for school, so I just left."

Kurt continued his story with how he wanted to avoid the school jocks and ended up walking whenever his legs would lead him. The Magician seemed interested in these 'jocks', but said he would leave it for another time.

"Would you change something about that morning with your father? Perhaps apologize?"

Kurt knew that even without his last comment their morning would end up in disagreement if he wasn't honest.

"I might have** actually come ****_out as gay to him."_**

**_As soon as he was speaking these words he was transported back to that morning, to the living room at his home. His dad from the vision stood frozen, so he probably had heard that confession. Kurt looked down at the warm-coloured carpet and waited for the verdict, response - anything. He couldn't help but hoping that maybe it would be okay. Maybe his dad would learn to at least tolerate him, even if he would tell him to hide it from anyone else – and Kurt _****would****_ hide it, because he only needed this one person in front of him to accept him._**

**_"No, you are not _****gay****_."_**

**_Kurt felt tears in his eyes and they stung too strong to be just the part of the vision. His dad's reply didn't sound like denial, but like a command. _**

**_"I wish I could switch it off just like that, but I can't," Kurt said, still focused on the carpet. "And it's not like I'm going to sing who I am standing in the middle of this city, so-"_**

**_"I don't have a gay son," his dad paraphrased and Kurt understood the implications. Then, as if he couldn't bear to be in his child's presence any longer, his father turned to leave the room. Kurt knew it might be his last chance to fix this. Maybe if he could explain... and promise that he would just squash that part of him for the time being and most importantly he wouldn't bring any boys home. _**

**_"Dad!"_**

**_Kurt tried to stop him by grabbing his shoulders. He looked at his dad's face pleadingly._**

**_And then he screamed because it was blank – only skin stretched evenly over the oval of his dad's- _****no it couldn't be him****_ – head._**

**_He stepped back slowly, pondering if he should run away from this... creature. _**

_**He heard a door opening behind him with a strange jingle and a voice.**_

**_"You can escape through here."_**

**_That sounded like a wise idea, so Kurt turned around in a flash and all but jumped through the door._**

* * *

Kurt moved back to the back area like through a dream. It was really late and he felt exhausted, but also extremely hungry, so instead of feeling his way to his sofa he opened the 'staff office' door to pick something up from the fridge. He didn't expect to see the light seeping from under the kitchen door so late and almost went back – he wasn't sure he could handle seeing anyone now – but his stomach rumbled in mutiny. He took a deep breath; thinking he would just go inside, eat quickly and run to sleep, but when he opened the door that plan instantly got forgotten.

At the table sat Blaine, seemingly awake only thanks to the book he was reading, a big plate filled with sandwiches and salad laid out next to it. The curly-haired boy looked up and attempted to smile, but soon his face was filled with concern.

Dropping the book he surged toward the door. "Oh, Kurt."

Kurt closed his eyes and allowed the warm arms to wrap around him. After the vision he_ really_ didn't want to cry, but stupid Blaine with his stupid worrying was melting all his defences now and Kurt sobbed, breaking down.

* * *

**next chapter: House of Duets**


	5. House of Duets

**AN: Halfway there! Thank you for reading!**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**House of Duets**

Kurt heard Blaine closing the kitchen door with a quiet click and hoped guiltily that he hadn't woken anyone up with his crying. The curly-haired boy returned to him quickly and delicately pushed him into a chair.

"You should eat something."

Kurt nodded and took a long look at the food on the plate. "I'll take a few if I can."

"You can eat all of it. I already had dinner and it's for you."

The pale boy sniffed and reached for the closest sandwich. "You are being nice again."

"I'm always nice," Blaine objected. He sat down next to Kurt, but didn't go back to reading. "I'm just easily irritated by stubborn boys."

Kurt's eyelashes fluttered. The way his companion said 'stubborn_ boys'_ it had a pleasant tingly quality to it that was hard to ignore. While Kurt was always afraid to even consider what might be his 'type', he wouldn't be surprised for it to be someone like Blaine, with his obvious masculine charm. Then he remembered his type choice wouldn't matter, because he could never really date anyone, never could introduce any _boy_ to his dad... Had he rejected his son only within a vision or was it something that actually happened? Kurt wasn't so sure at the moment. He swallowed quickly the rest of the sandwich, feeling the next wave of tears coming.

"Kurt, you need to breathe," Blaine's voice reminded him and the taller boy made an effort to rhythmically inhale and exhale. It didn't help much.

"Did something happ- Well, obviously something happened – it's always the case, but maybe you'd want to, you know, talk about it?"

Kurt hunched his shoulders with a shaky sob and apparently it looked like an invitation, because Blaine scooted closer. The warm hand rubbed Kurt's back, but the pale boy felt like he didn't deserve that special treatment.

"Is it the same for everyone?"

"The topic changes of course, because it has to be about you, personally, but the outcome is pretty much the same."

Kurt thought about that first night, when Blaine stepped in his place while he simply slept through the whole thing.

"Then there is nothing to talk about. I know now why yesterday Santana didn't immediately come back to us. I just need to digest it by myself."

Blaine disagreed. "That's what everyone does and that's why it's getting worse and worse and... just talk to me. I know what kind of skeletons the Magician likes to take out of the closet, so I understand your reluctance, but if you tell me I really won't judge you. Hell, I could just promise I didn't hear it and forget about it later." The curly-haired boy rambled and Kurt figured that instead of pushing him away he could actually confess and _then_ Blaine would most likely leave on his own.

"I went back to the morning of that day that I visited this cursed shop. I was at home- um, not really, it was more like a vision-"

"I know what you mean."

"Oh, of course." Kurt searched his mind to get back on track and repeated to Blaine what he saw and what he heard last evening. However, he was carefully hiding the 'coming out' part, instead focusing on the already strained relationship he had with his dad. It made his confession choppy, but he hoped Blaine would blame his shaken state for this.

The shorter boy patiently waited for Kurt to finish – how the smug-looking Magician had thanked him for the entertaining evening and how he had barely left the front desk without breaking down right there in front of _that man._

"I hope you know that your vision was partially fabricated, right?" Blaine finally spoke. "This is what the Magician wants – for you to start thinking that this place might be a prison, but it still is the best place for you to be in."

"It seemed so real," Kurt whispered back. "My dad said these things in such a tone that I knew only him could say that."

"Come on, he wouldn't reject you just because of a stupid argument. I don't know you for long, but I can tell you care about him and he does about you. The real him would not stop until he would find out what really bothered you."

Kurt barked a dry laughter. "And then after finding out about me the scenario would look exactly the same." _Because this is what actually happened._

"What are you talking about? No matter what you are his-"

"Gay son," Kurt spat in anger and then instantly slammed a hand over his mouth as if it would take back the words. With fearful eyes he looked at Blaine and saw him completely shocked.

It was easy to back off from Blaine, and Kurt needed some distance between them to not freak out the other boy.

"But... You _can't_ be!"

_Oh God, he as well..._Kurt's face went even paler than it was before and he felt a bile travelling up his throat. Just great – he was going to be sick here now. A freaking cherry on top.

"Kurt, stay with me!" Blaine pried the hand from over top of Kurt's mouth. "I'm sorry I reacted like that, okay?"

Kurt glanced at him like a hunted animal. "He said the same. That I can't be-" He couldn't say that word again.

"Who- Oh no, I didn't mean that! Obviously you _can_ be gay!" Blaine all by shouted, trying to get Kurt's attention. "It was Santana that said- never mind, I'll kill her later... The thing is I was just surprised! But it's okay!"

Kurt shook his head, because it wasn't _okay_. "I would be his disappointment no matter what you say. Just go away."

"Ugh... I don't want you to take it as the only reason I'm staying, because I would anyway, but I am too!"

Kurt stopped his last sob with a hiccup and blinked slowly at the boy desperately clinging to him. "You are a disappointment too?"

"What?" Blaine looked like he was making a quick internal replay at who said what. "No! I am _gay_ too. And none of us is a disappointment," he added sternly, getting an even stronger grasp on the sobbing teenager.

Kurt was still hiccupping, but his crying was easing off. His mind started to clear too as Blaine's touch – _He was also gay? Really? Really?!_ – was pulling him back to the reality of the kitchen, of the sandwiches that the shorter – _gay!_ – boy had prepared for him. "My dad disagrees with you on that."

Blaine shook his head. "The Magician's vision disagrees with me. There is a dangerous spell put on the shop to prevent us from leaving, but there is also a far more dangerous spell put on us – the one that twists what we think is the truth and what is just illusion. You need to focus on what makes these illusions lies."

Kurt frowned and searched his memory for the division between the real part and the lie. "I left the house before outing myself," he admitted finally. "So I can't be sure what his reaction would be."

"Good."

"And his face... there was _no face_."

"Oh, yeah..." Blaine looked at Kurt with pity. "And there won't be any faces or any names in any of these from now on either."

Kurt looked at him in horror – he wasn't sure he could stand seeing any more of these visions, especially as they had seemed so real.

"How did you managed to go through so many and not became insane? Or brainwashed?" he asked.

Blaine's face clouded. The normally kind features sharpened and the boy suddenly seemed so much older than before. His plump lips flattened into a thin line.

"I can't say it didn't influence me at first, but I had help," he said slowly. Kurt thought that was the whole answer, but Blaine continued after a pause. "I had help in remembering that the Magician doesn't mean us well. During and after every 'conversation' I just need to bring out this thought and then it doesn't matter what I said, what I saw or what I heard."

* * *

Blaine later regretted a little what he had told Kurt. No, not the 'gay' part – that one pretty much made his day – but the one about the 'help' he had received. Thinking back, he hoped that Kurt wouldn't now go and start asking everyone who was Blaine's 'helper'.

And then there was the problem with the Magician who practically now had the goth teenager on his radar. Kurt didn't even have to do anything and he still kept getting the shop owner's attention. Normally Blaine would be glad that there was a distraction from him in the shop, but he never meant for it to be Kurt.

In spite of his worries, Kurt managed to cheer up enough to actually get some sleep and the next day the rebellious boy even put some effort into getting to know the other kids better.

It all started when Rachel announced during dinner that she was going to do some baking that evening and everyone – minus Kurt – looked at each other in horror. The problem was not that she was a terrible cook – she was a cook of 'mass destruction'. Every time the kids would have to spend hours to bring the kitchen back to its normal state. Moreover, if anyone would actually be in the kitchen during that time they were to face the same danger as the poor floor, furniture and cupboards.

"Why is everyone leaving in such a hurry?"

Blaine pondered on how to best answer Kurt without being cruel to Rachel – he genuinely cared for that extravagant brunette.

"Rachel is going to bake and everyone... just want to give her space. You know – so she could freely express herself."

"Express herself without exterminating us," Puck added, with ease eating his tenth pizza slice.

That must have given Kurt a hint, because he now tried to gather his dishes from the table rather quickly. "Is it really that bad? Her baking?" Kurt glanced shyly at Puck. He had avoided the mohawked teen most of the time and Blaine guessed it was because Puck looked a bit too much like one of Kurt's regular bullies at school.

"There usually is not much left of the actual cake after that," Puck replied, lowering his voice as Rachel was in the bathroom and he didn't want her to hear him. "I don't know why she bothers to do it – and the Unholy Trinity together with Hellkitty always use this opportunity to make her their chew toy."

Kurt pressed his lips together, thoughtful, and finished cleaning after dinner in silence.

"Something on your mind?" Blaine moved closer to him. He decided to closely observe the goth teenager this morning, in case he still needed some help getting over last night. "Just take it easy today."

"I... don't think I want to take it easy today. I need to do something and not to think about it," Kurt smiled sadly.

"Any ideas?"

Kurt nodded with a small sparkle in his eyes. "I think I'm going to do some baking today as well."

At the table Puck choked on his eleventh pizza slice.

"Dude, you are suicidal."

Blaine agreed with him. "You could bake tomo- make that day after tomorrow. We we still need to clean everything beforehand."

Kurt apparently had already decided. "Nope, I'm baking today."

"You're what?" Rachel peaked inside through the corridor, oblivious to Puck's earlier comments.

"I'm baking today with you," Kurt clarified, ignoring Blaine and Puck as they exchanged concerned looks.

"That's ... wonderful." Rachel still sounded rather wary of Kurt. "Do try to not get in my way, though."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Seeing as they couldn't prevent the 'baking' from happening, Blaine and Puck made a swift exit, the shorter boy stopping by Kurt for a moment.

"Will you be okay here? You two weren't very comfortable with each other yesterday."

"I know I'm not a really 'people' person, but I should at least try to be. And it pains my good taste, but I might as well start with Rachel."

* * *

Even Puck was quiet while working on something new and hazardous in the main area. Everyone was trying to listen to the sounds coming from the kitchen, Blaine tensed and ready to jump into action at Kurt's first scream.

"I hope these will be landmines. Is Rachel baking landmines again?" Brittney asked, shuffling to make herself more comfortable sitting across Santana's lap.

Her dark-haired friend glanced at the 'staff office' door. "They usually take shorter. It might be hand grenades this time, or..." she shuddered. "...a _chocolate cake_."

"That abomination shall never be created again," Kitty - who sat next to them - preached.

"Quiet!" Jake hushed everyone suddenly.

At first they didn't hear anything . However, the longer they waited, the clearer they could hear two voices coming from the kitchen.

"They are talking... no..." Quinn frowned, surprised. "Singing?"

There was no doubt about that. The two high, clear voices were duetting some musical tune and they weren't accompanied by any dish crashing or any explosions.

Suddenly, they could hear a louder sound, but it was... laughter. Before they could think of what horrors it could mean, the 'staff office' door opened. There, in the huff of the steam cloud walked out Rachel and Kurt carrying two trays filled with cupcakes.

Blaine felt his lips tugging into a grin as he saw Kurt without his make-up again – probably taken off so as to not steam and smudge from the warm oven air. The faces of two 'bakers' were hued with pink and satisfied.

"You have to try these, guys!" Rachel beamed. Her boast usually would be enough to send everyone away, but Kurt smiled too – and since he had helped cook their unusually tasty dinner earlier, everyone took it as a guarantee there is nothing to be afraid of here.

The short brunette and her new 'favourite duet partner' walked around to give everyone their cupcakes. Kurt made it to Blaine before Rachel.

"They look good," Blaine complimented and then moaned as he bit the lemon one. "Delishoush."

Kurt set the tray onto the floor. "It was a fierce _battle_ against chaos and too much baking powder that we managed to win," he said with fake modesty.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but what was that song you sang there? It was too quiet for me to recognize."

"Oh, we sang quite a few – Mostly from 'Wicked'."

"Could you sing for us?" Blaine made a show of fluttering his eyelashes. Marley and Jake heard him and shouted for a performance as well.

"No way," Kitty hissed, but Rachel and Kurt were clearly on a roll, because they easily threw themselves into an a capella version of 'Defying Gravity' and completely rocked the song, making even Unholy Trinity hum along.

After the applause, the group launched into the discussion about their favourite choice of music until Puck threw an offhand comment.

"Kurt, dude, no offence, but with your voice probably every song you do would sound pretty gay."

Kurt froze mid-conversation with Marley and shifted uncomfortably on his sofa spot.

"I..." He looked around in alarm.

"I know you have a girlfriend, dude, I'm just saying."

Kurt drummed his fingers on his knees and locked his eyes with Blaine. The shorter boy understood that Kurt had no idea how these people would react to his sexuality. Blaine didn't want to out Kurt himself, but decided he would show him that it's a safe group.

"You really need to stop these comments, Puck," he spoke. "I still remember your comment about how my _bowtie_ was gay and did that go well for you?"

Puck laughed. "Yeah – you literally punched the homophobia out of me then. But it's different – you _are_ gay, B."

Blaine winked at Kurt whose eyes were now wide as saucers. Still trembling, the taller boy inhaled. _That's it, Kurt, it will help you..._

"I..." The pale boy started again. "I actually am gay."

Not everyone was surprised. Blaine glanced at Santana, who avoided his eye contact, but her blush betrayed that she had already knew.

"But you have a girlfriend!" Puck exclaimed, shocked.

"She was more like my beard," Kurt said. "I really liked- _like_ her, but I can't fake a kiss, so to emphasize our 'relationship' we matched our style. She was a hardcore goth, so I had no choice..."

"So you used her to pretend to be straight?" Santana asked.

Kurt curled his fingers into fists. "It helped her too! Before that they used to call us _Hag and Fag," – _he spat out – "throwing us into garbage bins... after getting together we still were- _are_ the bottom of the society pyramid, but we get the light version of the bullying now." Already tired from this confession Kurt massaged his forehead. "I guess there is no need for me to hide here."

"Nope," Jake grinned. "Since Puck learned his lesson and became a harmless teddy bear there have been no idiot jocks here."

"Unfortunately for Puck I had a friend that taught me a bit of boxing," Blaine added the explanation, relishing in how Kurt looked now at him in awe.

Kurt didn't have more time to be amazed by Blaine's 'battle prowess', because Rachel started to whine to him about another song. The boy easily agreed and their high, pleasant voices again filled the back area of the shop.

The teenagers weren't the only one listening to the performance. When Blaine turned around he saw the Magician. The man was straightening some products on the shelves, but it was clear he was listening in.

Blaine tensed – he knew that the Magician wasn't a fan of music, particularly songs. The curly-haired boy guessed it might have something to do with the fact that a good song could have a great impact on the listener and the Magician didn't like rivalry to his magic in any form.

"Most interesting creature."

Blaine realised that the Magician was quietly talking to him – and he rarely did it when others were around.

"A bit problematic, but that's the point – to care for the person despite his flaws. He also has so much history hidden in him. I am so glad you found him for me," the man smiled seeing Blaine's body flinch at that. "Yes, I saw how you were looking at him that day with interest. Good choice, Blaine."

The man could not see the boy's face at the current angle, so Blaine allowed himself to close his eyes and clench teeth in anger. Not only the Magician had spied on him, but also used him to find a new person to his 'family'... Blaine felt the fury boil in him with the renewed wish of revenge – another one adding to the list - but now was not the right time – it was too early. He took a deep breath. _Pretend_. Another. _Wait_. And another to calm himself. _But don't forget the names – Sebastian, Hunter._

The Magician passed him and the others froze when they noticed his arrival. Suddenly all of them tried to become as invisible as possible. Blaine was actually surprised – the Magician certainly didn't need the 'talk' every evening, but recently he seemed to indulge himself with them.

_It would be good to find out if it's because he is in a good mood or if he had a problem_, Blaine thought, trying to follow the Magician's eyes to see who it would be tonight.

When he saw Kurt suddenly turn deathly pale he swore silently. Since trapping more than one kid in the shop, the Magician never 'talked' with the same person twice in a row – for simple variety and for the person to be able to collect themselves after their last 'vision'.

"Kurt, that song sounded wonderful. I really want to hear more of your voice this evening."

Blaine leaned on the bookshelf to steady himself. He was still on the verge of wanting to just walk in there and tell that creep to stay away from Kurt from now on, but he had an idea what would happen then and it wasn't worth the little rebellion.

Kurt's eyes met his when he moved to follow the Magician to the front of the shop. As if that afternoon – baking together with Rachel, singing, joking together – was just a dream and he was called back to hell.

_Don't look at me like that, Kurt... like you expect me to save you..._ Blaine felt so completely useless. All this time and he still wasn't able to do anything against the Magician, nothing to protect everyone...

The delicate hand brushed his fingers.

"Blaine... don't be like that. It's not like he's not coming back to us."

The boy looked at Rachel with a tired expression. "I know, but none of us should need to do this at all."

The girl frowned. "It's true, but you are in such a physical pain every time one of us goes... You can't suffer like that – it's not your fault it happens."

Blaine laughed bitterly. "Actually, with Kurt... it kind of is. I didn't tell you guys, but I saw him the moment he entered the shop. He just strode in and it felt like the whole place just became brighter..." He coughed, embarrassed. "I followed him through the entire shop and couldn't take my eyes off him. I should have suspected something when the Magician walked up to me then and told me to go back here and that he would do 'the rest', as if he would be finishing a task I had started."

Blaine didn't mention that despite the command he hid himself and stayed – at first just to finally hear Kurt's voice, and then to be able to finally see the whol-e casting of the spell - he would later compare it to his own memories and confirm some of his theories. Maybe instead of that he should have warned the boy...

Unable to read his mind, but seeing the guilt in his eyes, Rachel hugged the boy. "I still think it's not your fault. He could still notice Kurt – it's hard not to – and get him despite what you did. Also, it might be a bit unfair toward Kurt, but his arrival did you a lot of good. It's good to see you guys becoming friends."

Blaine felt selfish for doing so, but silently he agreed with Rachel. If only Kurt didn't have to suffer for this...

* * *

**next chapter: House of Questions**


	6. House of Questions

**AN: Here's another one! Thank you all for faves and follows.**

**Dear Anon reviewer: Thank you! Hopefully this chapter makes it more clear, but Kurt didn't recognize him, because he didn't remember the faces and names of him and people from 'outside' - he never says his best friend's name, calls his dad as 'dad' even in thoughts etc. He obviously didn't realize he forgot it, so I couldn't make it that clear in a story from his POV... That's the problem with a brainwashed character - he makes a heck of an unreliable narrator ;) **

**Anyway, prepare yourself for even weirder events below!**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**House of Questions**

Since the 'baking' day the Magician has had a sadistic streak in his routine, taking Kurt for 'conversations' every evening for the last five days. Each time the boy would come back more exhausted and guarded. Knowing from his own experience of how it felt, Blaine was always waiting for him in the kitchen. While others would prefer to be left alone, Kurt actually was eager to share his visions with the curly-haired boy. It was probably because for the first time in his life he had someone that had actually listened to his problems – and do a much better job at comforting than Kurt's school counsellor.

To a random observer it could look like Kurt was taking advantage of Blaine's generosity and using him as his crying pillow, but truthfully the visions were just a prelude to their discussions on school bullying, the hopeless fight with homophobia and even the problems with finding out about themselves. It has been a while for Blaine to have a partner to talk about it with and he could do so for ages with Kurt – to hear his voice, to watch how his mood was reflected by the colour of his eyes.

At the same time, when Kurt thought that no one was looking at him, his eyes would lose all their brightness and he could just sit alone for hours, almost without moving – only his fingers curling around themselves in sadness. Blaine knew that everyone went through the same, but watching the boy he cared about suffering the same fate was especially painful. Only few days ago he was so determined to escape, but as the cruel daily routine continued, his hopes for getting out were slowly vanishing...

Until the return of the Detective Hummel.

The man looked like he hadn't slept in days. His hollowed eyes darted around the shop and from time to time he rubbed his hand along the unshaven jaw. After a quick glance at the bookshelves at the front, their sides covered with colourful posters, he frowned and rushed to the front desk. The few children who played there instantly fled.

Blaine and Kurt were just talking in their private 'hideout' behind the manikins, when they heard the familiar gruff voice and scooted closer. Kurt brightened up and almost squealed.

"It's him, Blaine! That detective returned! The Magician looks _so_ pissed."

That would be an understatement – the Magician looked like he was about to explode. With great difficulty he managed to mould his face into a pleasant one and greeted the detective like an old friend.

"Don't 'how are you' me," Detective Hummel replied. "I left you the leaflets with the missing kids in hopes you'd hang them in your shop. What if you had a customer here with some information about them?"

The Magician coughed politely. "I was going to do it, of course, only there were things happening – the new delivery, stock checking... I simply didn't even have a minute to do it..."

"You didn't have a minute that might've saved those children?"

Kurt was watching the no-nonsense detective with such an admiration it annoyed Blaine a little.

"He's not such a great detective if he's not suspecting what's going on here despite being here twice already," he grumbled.

Kurt sent him a dirty look. "Give him a break – it's not like he could see anything. For now he's cheering me up enough by making the Magician squirm."

Blaine shared that sentiment. The shop owner started to lose his ageless, waxy look on his face due to discomfort. They could only see Detective's Hummel back, but his stare must have been intense to cause such uneasiness.

"I doubt anyone even looks at what posters I hang here. Most kids are so distracted by the assortment that they can't even walk without crashing into the shelves."

As if to present an example, a little kid bumped into the detective with a loud, "Umpf!" The gruff man caught and steadied the child with a surprising gentleness.

"Careful there, kiddo," he ruffled the little boy's head who quickly apologized and skidaddled to his mom.

Next to him, Blaine heard a sharp intake of air. "Something wrong, Kurt?"

The boy didn't answer, just glued his eyes to the detective as if hypnotised. Blaine moved closer to Kurt as he had a bad feeling about this.

The detective followed the little boy with his pale eyes before returning his attention to the Magician.

"You have lots of kids coming in here, I'm pretty sure there might be even some of the missing kids' classmates."

"If this means so much to you I'll hang them this week." The Magician was clearly trying to postpone the detective's next visit as much as possible.

"These kids are someone's daughters and _sons _and their parents are already losing hope without any new information_,_" Detective Hummel added sternly.

The Magician looked uncomfortable. "Yes, I understand your pain." He was scouring his brain for something to say to appear sympathetic. "It must be hard to now be alone at home without anyone there."

Blaine was glad he had pressed himself to Kurt earlier. He felt before he could see that the boy surged forward like an arrow and Blaine was almost too late in catching him and staying unnoticed. He clamped his hand over Kurt's open mouth and dragged him back, deeper into their hiding place, while the boy clawed at his arm to get himself free. Blaine didn't know what had set Kurt off, but if they were discovered now by the Magician, things could get ugly. Left with no choice Blaine started to whisper into Kurt's ear.

The boy trashed hard one more time, before deflating in Blaine's arm. The shorter boy ceased the low murmur – he didn't want Kurt to fall asleep – and broke the thrall by asking the first question.

"What happened to you there? What part of 'don't reveal ourselves' don't you understand?"

Kurt arched his neck to face the shorter boy. His eyes were exploding with colour, the black pupils almost disappeared. "He's... This man is..."

"Okay, okay... let's sit down first."

Blaine slid down together with Kurt onto the floor. He felt tired from all that wrestling.

"Start again..." He panted. "And don't... jump out or scream. I don't think I'll be able to stop you again."

Kurt nodded, slowly calming down. "He's... Detective Burt Hummel is my father."

It sounded definite – not a guess, but a statement.

"How do you know?"

The pale boy shrugged. "I got this... warm feeling when I saw him interacting with that little boy. I was still guessing, but it was the Magician that made me sure."

"Him? How?"

"He told him- my dad - that he pitied him for being alone at home now that his son is gone."

Blaine frowned. "But that only says that he might be a parent of any of the boys here."

"Blaine!... Just listen – my dad never told him he doesn't have a wife any more – and then the Magician said that stuff about there being no one else... he was probably thinking of all these recent visions I had during our 'talks' and slipped!"

"That's still only-" It was Kurt's turn to silence Blaine – and to his credit he only had to use his two fingers on the shorter boy's lips.

"I haven't finished. There is also another thing that I should have noticed the first time my dad visited the shop – the missing person posters with their photographs."

Blaine furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, before his eyes widened in revelation – those were the other teenagers' heads with their names written underneath that Kurt mentioned the first time he woke up! His dad probably had been already working on the other missing kids cases and maybe brought them home where Kurt saw them by accident!

"I. Am. Kurt. Hummel." Kurt drawled with conviction.

"Kurt Hummel," Blaine obediently repeated and it _did_ sound right. "Hummel..."

Kurt smiled. Blaine reflected that smile as he watched the boy to become himself yet again. No one from the kids remembered their surnames and it was an unspoken rule to not touch that topic, but now this newly arrived boy managed to crack the spell put on him twice – with help, of course, but still it was a rare fit.

"And now, if you'd just let me to see my dad..." Kurt stood up when Blaine released him.

"Just don't let the Magician see you."

Kurt grinned. "We, Hummels are not that stupid, _sir_."

However, it turned out Burt Hummel was already gone, leaving one very pissed Magician at his wake. That dampened Kurt's mood as he wished to get a look at his father while _knowing_ it was his father.

It seemed that causing trouble for the Magician ran in Hummel's family blood, because the shop owner came to the teenagers after opening hours and told them that if the detective would came by while he wasn't at the front desk they were required to get him immediately – he didn't have to explain that he simply didn't want Burt Hummel to snoop around the shop without supervision.

"I almost wish we would stay there to see what your dad said that pissed him off so much," Blaine commented.

He and Kurt sat together on a sofa, enjoying the first time that Kurt hadn't been called to the front desk in the evening.

"I actually thought that he would torture me today out of revenge," Kurt admitted as he leaned back. He felt Blaine's fingers raking through his hair and smiled at the nice feeling. It was even nicer as soon as he closed his eyes, because he could concentrate on the gentle pull through his chestnut locks.

"He's locked himself in his room. I think he might be thinking on researching a spell to repel your dad from the shop."

Kurt snorted. "No 'good luck' to him. At least it's safe to guess that dad is not going to stop bothering him with 'one more question'. There is a reason my dad's one true idol is Lieutenant Columbo." Kurt hummed when Blaine scratched just the right place. "Speaking on researching magic and spells... Can we now address the elephant in the room?" Blaine's fingers stopped their ministrations as he tensed.

"I'm not sure I know what you are talking about."

"Uh huh... _sure_... I admit I was freaking out too much earlier, but not enough to not notice that you did something to make me relax. And it wouldn't be the first time. Will you confess or do you want me to say the word?"

Blaine sighed with irritation. "I'll admit it – it was a spell. I can do magic – very, _very_ simple stuff though. In a battle of skills the Magician would smack me down like a fly."

Kurt wasn't speaking, but he wasn't running away from him either.

"Kurt?"

"... Does anyone else know? Does the Magician?" Kurt suddenly sat straighter and opened his eyes, "Was he the one to teach you?"

Blaine gaped at him, shocked. "I learned it all by myself! You think I would want to have anything to do with _him_?"

Kurt hesitated. "I don't know... Why would you want to learn this stuff in the first place? So far I've only seen it doing a lot of damage."

"It doesn't have to. What spells you use and how is your own choice. The one I used on you I learned for myself – it helped me to calm down when I was too upset to sleep at night." Blaine looked down at his lap. It sounded so wrong– as if he had manipulated Kurt every time he had used it – when all he wanted to do was help him...

"How did you even find it?"

"From books."

Kurt blinked. "From books?"

"Turns out not everything here is stage magic or fantasy fiction," Blaine waved his hand at the huge bookshelf filled with books. "I think when the Magician created that copy of the shop for another dimension it spilled into books. Mind you – not just one. I found sentences, phrases in different ones. That calming spell was distributed over a dozen of books and pages, including even a recipe book." Blaine felt weird changing the story to make it seem like he was the one that had made that discovery. Despite knowing Kurt the shortest time out of everyone in the shop, Blaine not for the first time wondered if that amazing boy was the one he could tell about everything – including Sebastian and Hunter... On the other hand Kurt looked now so _alive_, so _buzzing_ from learning about his father that he didn't want to upset the boy with his story...

"Oh wow... was there an 'escape' spell perhaps?"

"Believe me, I would learn that one first."

"Do you know more?" Kurt fired question after question like a reporter... or a detective. Blaine suspected that the worst part of that interrogation was yet to come.

"Very few. It takes a long time to put together one – even longer until it actually works."

"So these few spells took you several months?"

"Try years."

_Uh-Oh_

Kurt looked coldly at Blaine, who – cursed his stupidity - then wished he could run away and hide, or at least melt into the sofa's cushion.

"And here I thought that we were in this together, that we were friends... I told you everything! I told you what had happened to me in the past – the hiding, the bullying, becoming a 'goth' fake couple with my best friend... I even freaking told you what was happening in my brain." Kurt's voice cut into Blaine like a knife. "And then you forget to mention that you are also a magician and that you've been here for years..."

Kurt inhaled, and paused his speech. Blaine could almost hear the gears working in his brain and prepared himself for the worst accusations.

"You've been here for _years_," Kurt repeated, his tone quieter now, tinted with more dread than anger. "Others arrived here few weeks ago, so... you've been here _alone_ for years. Alone with this creepy..." Kurt was shaking his head with disbelief.

Blaine sighed. "You can ask the question, you know? Been here a long time, I know some spells..."

"You just said you are _not_ his student or anything."

"I said a lot of things that aren't true."

Kurt tilted his head, scrutinising the boy- no... was he already a man? "How many years?"

"Eight." It felt so long compared to all the other kids, yet so short compared to the eternity that the Magician was experiencing and that he was promising them to have.

"Eight..." Kurt repeated it like an ominous echo. His blue eyes shone strongly and roamed Blaine's face with disbelief.

Blaine knew that he had to help him with the numbers. "I arrived here when I was sixteen... and well... my body didn't get older since then."

"So you are now..."

"Last week I had my 24th birthday," Blaine supplied gently and watched with weird fascination how Kurt was processing all these new facts.

The boy opened his mouth to say something, but had problems with getting the sound out. "You... alone... for so long... I don't think _I_ would be able to do this for so long without anyone beside me or without having some kind of goal."

* * *

**_"So you are Blaine?" The tall brunet with striking green eyes outstretched his hand to the confused boy sitting on the floor. Blaine ignored the hand, looking around. "Where am I? What happened?"_**

**_The other guy – a well-built dirty blonde standing few steps away- answered instead of the brunet. _**

**_"You prefer to know the bad news first or the good news?"_**

**_"The good news," Blaine decided._**

**_"Okay, bad news first." The blonde smirked playfully. "You were kidnapped, brainwashed and now you are locked in another dimension."_**

**_Blaine gaped at him. "What the-"_**

**_"The good news is..." The brunet kneeled next to Blaine to get his attention back. "...that we don't intend to stay here and if you stick with us we could bust you out as well. I'm Sebastian by the way. Has anyone told you have very pretty eyes?"_**

**_ The blonde guy rolled his eyes. "Stop making the kid nervous, Seb."_**

**_"I'm just trying to be friendly, Hunter." _**

* * *

"I have a goal," Blaine protested. "I have one that will never allow me to accept my existence here, but also it also required me to pretend I don't want to bring the Magician down."

Kurt watched Blaine, intrigued. The pupils in his eyes diluted, making them darker, more sinister. "And that would be?"

"Revenge," Blaine said shortly and saw Kurt's eyes darken even more – or maybe they just reflected the void of colour in his own eyes at the moment.

* * *

**_Blaine continued to watch the card from the last hand in horror, while the Magician stood above him, Sebastian and Hunter like a merciless deity. _**

**_"That was an interesting game, gentlemen, but it was still ages too early for you to challenge me, especially in my field." He paused, pondering over how to proceed. "I'll admit, though, that I wasn't taking into account you using spells against me during the game. I thought that taking in kids that are strong and confident would mean that they would adapt quickly, but I see I was wrong about that." He glanced at Blaine. "I might need to find the ones with a certain amount of vulnerability in them... That calls for some spell calibrating, I guess."_**

**_"Have fun with that," Sebastian spat. He was angry both at the Magician for winning the game so easily and for himself to think he was skilled enough._**

**_"I will, as soon as I get rid of my current problems."_**

**_Blaine paled. Up until now the Magician was always clear on how his goal wasn't to hurt any of them – at least physically. _**

**_"You can't really do anything to us," Sebastian said quickly - he must have heard the threat in the shop owner's voice as well. "You need us. We know these little 'conversations' with you are not only for kicks. It's the payments you need to keep this time bubble up and stable– filling it with memories that you no longer have-"_**

**_Blaine would swear he heard the sound of the paper tear first. Then, like a rag doll, Sebastian was thrown from his chair and with a sickening crunch he hit the wall before awkwardly sliding down onto the floor. Blaine shuddered and with terror found himself unable to look away from Sebastian's still silhouette. _**

**_"I do need those," the Magician calmly admitted. "But it could be as easily memories of only one person. Blaine." He looked at the frightened boy. "I noticed you didn't try anything against me. I don't think your friends had time to teach you any of their little tricks, am I right?"_**

**_Blaine swallowed, but it was Hunter who answered._**

**_"You are a magician, so you know how long it takes to learn this. Blaine has only been here for a year – do you think he would get anything during such short time?"_**

**_The curly-haired boy looked at his friend with wide eyes, but Hunter was looking at Sebastian with resignation in his eyes._**

**_"You are right," the Magician agreed. "At least I'll have the one who is not corrupted yet. And his personality is also a bit... more amiable. I'll have to explore this quality in next children."_**

**_When the tearing sound filled Blaine's ears again, he instinctively pressed his eyelids closed. He waited in the darkness. For what? For his turn? To hear anything more happening to Hunter? To pretend he didn't exist in that moment, in this place?_**

* * *

"When I decided to open my eyes there was no Sebastian or Hunter anywhere – not even their bodies." Blaine finished. The anger over losing these again burned him from the inside.

"I guess you didn't feel like asking the Magician what had happened to them, right?"

Kurt was much calmer now. He was still scrutinising Blaine – observing him like a complete new person – but at least he believed that Blaine wasn't on the shop owner's side.

"No... Although he would probably happily answer me in detail."

Kurt sank back into the sofa's cushion. "I'm sorry this happened to you and your friends."

Blaine acknowledged that with a nod, but was afraid to say anything more. Their friendship was fragile even before and now Kurt might want to be left alone, because Blaine was too strange for him - a man, but not really mature, a magician, but a useless one that knew very few spells...

"Blaine..." Kurt suddenly spoke up. "I could almost _hear_ you worrying. Stop it – everything's okay between us. I just need to get used to start thinking about you as a twenty-four year old teenager that is also a Merlin in the making."

"So..." Blaine looked at the taller boy with hope. "You forgive me for hiding that from you?"

"Hey, I hid that I was gay from you at first, so... Let's say I forgive you if you continue the massaging. It helps me with thinking and planning."

Blaine happily sank his fingers back into Kurt's hair. "What are you planning?" He asked.

"A late birthday party."

* * *

**next chapter: House of Joy**


	7. House of Joy

**AN: New chapter and I've finally put Magicalplaylist's image as cover - visit her tumblr (her nickname is the name of the blog) to see the big, shiny version of it and Kurt's and Blaine's cards! **

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**House of Joy**

Blaine thought at first that Kurt was kidding about the birthday party.

"Uh, I'm not joking."

"But... I can't believe that I'm going to take over your place as the nagging one, but we need to do something! You said you wanted to contact your dad before the Magician would conjure something – isn't it more important that a stupid birthday party?"

"Birthdays are imported and Detective Burt Hummel won't let anyone push him around," Kurt opposed, but paused for a beat. "So there is a way to get a message to my dad? I mean – we are not even technically in the same shop."

"It's tricky, but there are... things that are in both shops."

"Like what?"

"Like _who_."

Kurt closed his eyes and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Of course. So what are we going to do? Write a message and pin it to the Magician's back?"

Blaine thought for a moment. While impossible to pull off in that form, the idea itself actually made sense. If Burt Hummel were to return it would be to talk with the Magician, so the message had to be close by all the time. Something that only Burt would catch on...

"We'll need to get your dad's attention – something that only he could recognize."

Kurt nodded. "Leave that to me as soon as we figure out how we send the message and what we write... dark or white chocolate?"

"White- what?!" Blaine groaned. "Why are you doing it?"

Kurt shrugged and actually looked shy at the moment. "I bet you never celebrated your birthday here, right?"

"But we already missed it!"

"Only few days. And a party now will do us good."

Blaine frowned. "That sounded ominous."

Kurt stood up, looking angrier than he should be. "If you don't like the idea, you can pretend it's _not_ your birthday party."

Blaine held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. The pale boy was going to be a death of him one day.

"Okay, we are having the party."

"And you will be happy about it," Kurt added firmly.

"It seems I have no choice, but to be happy about it," Blaine confirmed with a teasing smirk, but his agreement was enough for the pale boy.

"Great. Now, I need you to not enter the kitchen under any circumstance until we let you in – is that clear?"

"Yep... but who are 'we'?"

"Me, Rachel, Jake, Marley... might add Puck as well, although it will be risky. The Unholy Trinity would be useless in cooking and decorating with their long nails and Kitty... She would try to poison us just for kicks."

"Do they _know_ they are helping you?"

Kurt looked at Blaine and the shorter boy for the first time saw Kurt's 'bitch, please' face. He was sure that expression wasn't supposed to be 'attractive', but it was. _Very._

"I won't give them a choice, obviously."

* * *

With few hours to spend being blocked from the kitchen Blaine decided to start thinking of ways to contact Kurt's father. He recalled the gruff voice, massive silhouette... everything shouted 'redneck father', but from Kurt's stories it was clear that under the tough-looking exterior was hidden a person that loved his only son deeply. Would he be enough to find a way to help them all?

What Burt could do was out of his hands, but he was their only chance and they had to find a fool-proof way to contact him. It would be difficult with the Magician around and Blaine doubted that Burt would feel like venturing further into the shop than the front desk.

The front desk... Of course – the easiest way to receive something from the shop was to buy it and there were some of the smaller, popular products placed by the cash register. Of course, Burt didn't look interested at all in the magic props displayed which could turn out to be a challenge. Blaine decided to leave that bit to Kurt – if the detective's son wouldn't know how what bait to prepare to catch his own father's attention, no one would.

He had more pressing problem to solve himself– how to plant the object on the table. The really only choice would it be to plant it during the evening 'conversation' with the shop owner, but there were several problems with it.

Firstly – Blaine was rarely chosen recently. With all these new people the Magician preferred to have Blaine take it easy and that night when he stepped in instead of Kurt was already a rarity.

Blaine rubbed the bridge of his nose. The only way to guarantee a 'talk' was to do something outrageous, pissing the Magician off. That might be an easy feat for Kurt or Santana, but the shop owner had developed over the years a soft spot for him – not 'soft' enough to let him go, obviously – and would probably forgive a lot. Maybe Kurt would do this – one scathing remark and he would have an evening reserved right away...

Blaine let go of that idea – he knew from the beginning that if their plan would need a risky part to play out he would be the one to do it.

He left that part for later and looked back at the Magician's front desk. To plant an extra object there he would need to actually hand it to the Magician and made him to place it in the 'real' shop without noticing the charade...

Blaine sighed – he knew what would be the easiest way to distract the Magician enough to create a situation to mix the message in with other products _and_ to not cause any suspicions. He also knew he didn't want to do it if he could help it.

Leaving the unpleasant details for later he took out a piece of paper and a pen and started making the list and series of drawings of what was laid out on the front desk. The objects were tacky and small, but they had to work with what they were offered. Blaine hoped that at least one of these would be the one to that could be their way out.

Later, when his steps brought him back to the kitchen, he heard excited voices from within. Kurt's idea with the party still completely boggled him – of all things to concentrate on from their discussion earlier, Kurt chose his birthday, which had already been and was irrelevant due to the fact that none of them truly aged here. What was that infuriatingly stubborn boy thinking?

* * *

Kurt had plenty of reasons to plan a 'twenty-fourth slash seventeenth' birthday party for Blaine – the main one was that he was internally freaking out. Remembering his surname and his father's identity opened a lot of closed doors to his memories – both the good ones and the bad. On top of that it had turned out that Blaine was practicing magic himself and was _way _older than he looked.

And then there was the fact that the Magician who played this _nice uncle_ and was supposed to not want them any harm had actually killed at least two of his prisoners before.

He needed to process everything while busying himself with something normal like baking, cooking and organising a fun party.

There was also a very, _very_ selfish reason – Kurt just wanted to do something for Blaine. The pale boy wouldn't normally forgive someone for keeping such important secrets to themselves easily, but... it was _Blaine_. By now Kurt knew what was his 'type' – it was a someone older and younger than him at the same time, _magically_ charming and looked good from behind- errr... from every angle. Yes – Kurt Hummel found out that he was quite picky about boys.

* * *

"Happy Belated Birthday!"

Instead of a champagne cork opening, the collective shout was accompanied by Puck and Jake's exploding confetti rackets – fortunately they made them smaller this time by Kurt's instructions.

Blaine's protests that 'it was completely unnecessary you guys' were drowned in everyone's enthusiasm. For a moment there, Kurt felt that it was a stupid thing to do after all, but was soon encouraged when he met Blaine's sparkly gold eyes and was rewarded with an amused smile.

"This is crazy, Kurt," the curly-haired boy – _grown up man?_ - said, but sounded impressed. Adding to Kurt's happiness he chose to sit next to him – it was a minor detail, really, but recently Kurt was really attuned to details like that.

The party itself didn't work out as _exactly_ as Kurt planned out - Rachel did managed to burn the salad, which was actually quite an achievement as all the ingredients were _raw_ and Puck's disco lamps didn't survive switching the power on – but everyone still had fun. Well - mostly.

Santana was sulking and sitting as far away from Brittany as possible, throwing scathing insults at everyone – especially Marley and Jake for some unknown reasons.

At the same time the usual royally calm Quinn would tear up every time someone would say the word 'birthday'.

"Forgetting the names was the worst," she sobbed when Kurt had finally taken her to the bathroom to cry it out. "That was the only name I got to create and now I don't remember it!"

"Whose name?" Kurt asked, somehow knowing he might later regret asking.

"My daughter's," Quinn all but wailed. "I had her with some stupid jock ex-boyfriend and I didn't want her when she was born - and now I feel like I'm being punished for that."

Kurt didn't know what to say – processing that the ice queen Quinn of all people was pregnant in her high school years was difficult enough. He felt tempted to tell her how he did it - connect the dots and got back his memories of his dad – but it wouldn't help Quinn much. He awkwardly rubbed her shoulder.

"I'm never going to see her again, am I," she spoke again, with a slight hiccup.

Kurt couldn't – just couldn't - not try to cheer her up. "We'll manage to get out, I promise."

Quinn looked at him with a mix of hope and suspicion. "What do you mean? Did you find a way out?"

"N-no," Kurt wished he had bitten his tongue. "We'll figure something out eventually, though."

Quinn deflated at that answer, but she also calmed down enough to let Kurt take her back to the party. She managed to put a watery smile on her face at some point.

"So... how did it go on your side?" Kurt asked Blaine quietly on the side, after he had returned to his seat.

"Quite okay. I have a list of the shop products that I need you to go through, though, before we proceed with my plan."

Kurt raised his eyebrows, intrigued. "Good to see you used your free time wisely and made a plan. Can't wait to hear it – I hope you have an exciting part for me in it as well."

Blaine looked away to scoop more of the strawberry-cream cake with his fork. "Each of us will do what we do best in it," he said cryptically.

* * *

Even after two helpings Blaine couldn't help stuffing his finger in the remnants of the cake's cream and licking it clean.

"I don't know what I did to deserve this creamy heaven made by Chief Hummel," he said.

"You were supposed to be helping me cleaning up," Kurt complained while shuffling the food bits from the plates to the bin.

Blaine lifted the cake tray. "I am! Few more licks and it will be squeaky clean! Maybe you could help me with that? You barely ate anything yourself."

"Not everyone here has a metabolism of an oven. Each spoon filled with cream is a new unnecessary fold on my hips."

Blaine's eyes wandered to Kurt's waist. "Nothing wrong with that – aren't they called 'love handles' after all?

Kurt rolled his eyes. "You know what? You convinced me – I hope you'll feel guilty when I start looking like a pear." He walked to the table, scooped a cream blob and lapped it up swiftly with his tongue. "Happy?"

Blaine beamed. "Yes – I'll consider this as another birthday gift."

"Speaking of gifts... Are you ever going to open this one?" Kurt waved at the cylindrical package from Puck. It was supposed to be a no-gifts party, but the Mohawk teen insisted on giving it with a mischievous smile on his face.

"No," Blaine decided. "I have a few ideas what it might be and I don't like any of the options."

Nodding, Kurt leaned over the table pressing his palms to its surface for support.

"Something's troubling you, Kurt?" Blaine asked and when the taller boy frowned at him, he pointed at his face. "You are gnawing on your bottom lip."

Absentmindedly, Kurt smoothed his lip with the tip of the finger. "No... Yes. I wanted to give you another gift, but I'm not sure..."

"You shouldn't bother... but I'm definitely going to love it," Blaine exclaimed.

Kurt winced. "Uh... It's really stupid." He took a deep breath. "I just hope it won't change your mind about helping me." He took the few steps around the table to stand in front of the shorter boy.

Blaine smiled nervously and glanced at Kurt's empty hands. "Where is it then?"

Kurt lifted his hands and pressed them to Blaine's shoulders. _Ohgodohgod... I'm doing it, I'm close...I'm so stupid, but it's too late... _his mind was hysterical.

He leaned forward and took great care to not look into Blaine's eyes so as to not see a rejection in them. Inches apart, he paused to give Blaine a way out and his heart hammered when he wasn't pushed away. However, just as the distance was closing between his and Blaine's lips Kurt, the face of the shorter man tilted and Kurt landed a peck on Blaine's cheek- just by the corner of his lips.

When Kurt retreated – humiliated - and dared to look at Blaine's face he wasn't sure what to expect, but certainly not the expression of guilt and fear. The taller boy momentarily let go of Blaine's shoulders.

"I'm so sorry, I-" And then he realized that Blaine wasn't looking at him. He was looking at the door.

Kurt froze as a cold drop of sweat ran down his spine. "Blaine... tell me it's not hi-"

"Kurt." Blaine interrupted him sharply and then changed his tone to an amiable monotone as he looked in the door direction. "Is there something you need? You don't usually come here."

"Usually there aren't any birthday parties going on here." The Magician's voice sounded on edge.

Kurt closed his eyes, not daring to turn around. _Why is he here now? Is he suspecting we know that Burt Hummel is my dad? Or maybe he somehow knows that Blaine practices magic for the sole purpose of avenging his friends..._

He now regretted that Blaine had told him the story about Sebastian and Hunter, because the knowledge that the Magician _would_ hurt them if he wanted to terrified him.

The warm press over his heart startled Kurt at first, but as he saw it was Blaine's hand comfortingly resting on his chest, he calmed down a little. He was suddenly glad that technically Blaine was older than him and taking over the role of his protector in that moment.

"We thought it would bring us together, as a _family_," Blaine responded politely.

"Oh, yes, of course." The Magician's voice was lying thick the fake enthusiasm. "I'm happy that you all get on together so well. The family bonds are important – pure, unconditional..."

Blaine was silent, while Kurt felt realisation dawning on him. The Magician wasn't exactly keen on them getting closer to each other more than necessary. He never commented on their sexuality, so the problem must have been something else... _What are you afraid of us doing?_ Kurt thought. _Friendship is okay, but something more is not? Is it because you stopped understanding what is to cherish, desire someone and are jealous of others experiencing it? _

"Kurt..." Hearing his name the taller boy jumped.

"Yes?" His voice squeaked.

"It's good to see you start finding your place here. It would be good for you, perhaps, to try to spend more time with others as well." Kurt could almost hear the silent 'And spend less time with the only other gay in the group.'

"I... I get on well with Rachel as well." Kurt quickly said. "We bake, sing together..."

"Good, very good," the Magician praised him. "I hope to see more of that attitude soon..." He paused, thinking about something.

Kurt half-expected him to get either him or Blaine for the next 'conversation' and today of all days he would actually welcome it, if only so he wouldn't need to address the almost-kiss that he had initiated.

"...Clean up and get some rest, boys," the Magician said instead. "I'm taking an early night myself."

Kurt lifted his head to see Blaine nod and then he looked away again. He didn't dare to move from his spot until he heard the 'staff office' door open and close behind him. Only then he exhaled loudly.

"This is bad – he _never_ comes here," Blaine murmured with a wary expression on his face.

"He has never broken any routine?" Kurt asks, trying to keep his voice nonchalant.

"No... But I wasn't exactly causing him problems these few last years. He might soon realize that with so many new kids here there will be... complications."

"Like romance?" Kurt didn't really want to bring this topic up, but it bothered him.

"Yeah... I think he is already after Santana – no wonder she's in a bad mood and keeps Brittany at a distance – and it's just a matter of time until he notices Jake and Marley getting closer... or us."

Kurt was surprised he didn't faint on that exact moment. "Us?" His voice was embarrassingly pitchy and he wished he could just disappear until he saw that Blaine was blushing.

"Did I misunderstand?" The shorter boy rubbed his neck. "I thought... Sorry – my only experience on this matter has been trashy romance books and teenage couples making out hidden between shelves."

"They did _what_?!"

"My point is," Blaine ignored the interruption. "I think I would like to receive my last birthday gift again."

Kurt blinked innocently. "I think the last one was from Puck."

"Kurt..."

Out of nowhere there he was – Blaine stood very close by and it was exhilarating and so scary... It wasn't love – Kurt wasn't sure what he should call their strange bond in this strange place – but he wanted to say 'thank you for being you' and 'you brighten up my day every time I see you' and that seemed like a good way to do it.

Kurt allowed Blaine to keep his hands around his face and leaned forward again bowing his head lightly. Their lips met delicately and through their touch they told each other much more than they would be able with words.

"If we get out-" Blaine started after they had separated.

"_When_ we get out," Kurt corrected.

"_When_ we get out we need to do it again and see what we feel then."

Kurt nodded, warily.

"...But that doesn't mean we can't kiss _at all_ before then," Blaine clarified, surging forward again.

* * *

**next chapter: House of Revenge**


	8. House of Revenge

**AN: Thank you all for reading! Tomorrow - the last chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**House of Revenge**

Kurt and Blaine went through the list of stage magic props and with heavy sighs they crossed off one piece of merchandise after another.

"What are you going to write?" Blaine asked as they took a break for coffee in hopes to clear their minds and to help with concentration.

"It depends how much space there will be," Kurt shrugged. "There is not much you could write on..." He glimpsed at the list. "...for example on a _clown mask_? This is all too bizarre even for me."

"Take your time with it, Kurt." Blaine squeezed Kurt's arm and they both remembered that things between them were quite different now, in a good way.

"By the way – I'm quite glad you don't use eye liner anymore. It was very cool and you totally pulled it off, but... I think I prefer your face the way it is now."

"I know."

"I hope you didn't do it for me, though?"

Kurt winked at him, amused. "I didn't. I just don't have a reason to hide my real face from you."

Blaine smiled. He was extremely happy with that glimpse of honesty in this fake bubble they were locked in. He didn't know if what they were doing now was going to change anything, but it was better than stagnant existence in eternity, always feeling threatened. He also would have an opportunity to drop the 'obedient' act and show the Magician that he hadn't forgotten what the man had done to Sebastian and Hunter.

"What is that?" Kurt pointed at the phrase on the list, interrupting Blaine's reflections.

Blaine squinted at the words. "Mad Hatter's Teacup? It's a chop tea cup. You have a cup with a magnet inside. You put a ball under-"

"Okay, stop," Kurt waved his hand. "I don't care what stupid trick it does - I want to know what it looks like."

"... Like a tea cup?"

"Really? I wouldn't know." Kurt rolled his eyes. "I want to know if the cup is visible from outside."

"Yeah, the package is transparent so you don't need to open every box to check if they chipped during delivery."

Kurt bit his lower lip as if considering something before deciding. "I might work with that. I need to get one beforehand, though."

"Not a problem," Blaine said. "But you don't really look sure about it. Maybe we could go through the list again?"

Kurt sighed with resignation. "No. It's a long shot, but still our best. If you can get me the cup I'll do the rest." He didn't look very enthusiastic.

"Are you going to tell me what you are going to do with it?"

"Maybe when it's ready," Kurt half-heartedly promised.

* * *

Kurt prepared the cup in a record time.

"So you put the note into the screwed part where the magnet is?" Blaine commented. "I still wish you'd show me what you wrote there."

"You wouldn't understand."

"Wow – do you guys have some kind of a code or something?"

"Or something," Kurt replied, not keen on revealing anything.

Blaine examined the cup. "It doesn't look different... wait – you did change the design a bit... So this is what you needed Unholy Trinity's collection of nail polish for? Phew, I thought you wanted to do something to your cute natural nails... Hey, did you break the cup?!"

Kurt nodded. "And then glued it back."

"And pretty badly at that." Blaine looked at the taller boy apologetically, but Kurt actually smiled.

"All according to plan – don't worry about it. The cup looks now like the one he broke during one of our tea parties. I wailed for a week that he glued it badly – I'm sure that at least his ears remember that."

"A tea party? Should I call you Alice now? You did fall down onto the floor at your arrival..."

"Jerk." Kurt shoved Blaine playfully. "It was just something I played with him when I was young... So when do we plant it? My dad could come any day now."

"Leave that to me – I'll do it as soon as possible."

The opportunity came sooner than he expected as they heard some sounds coming from the front of the shop way before opening time. Curious, they moved together to see what was happening.

As soon as they reached the end of the main shopping aisle they saw the Magician hanging up some blank papers up and anger sparked in Blaine's heart. These were their 'missing children' posters – he was extremely sure about it. The Magician had spent a lot of time cooped in his room just to make them look like blank pieces of paper to the captured teenagers.

Watching the camouflaged posters go up Blaine decided that it might as well be today to get a part of his revenge.

The Magician pinned the last 'poster' and turned toward the kids. He frowned a bit, seeing Blaine and Kurt standing close to each other out of habit . Blaine gritted his teeth seeing the man's hostility toward them two being together... and then he got an idea – one that would guarantee him the 'conversation' the soonest opportunity, even on that very day.

"Kurt..." he whispered carefully to the taller boy next to him. "...You are going to hate me for what I'm about to do in a moment, but I hope we can get through it eventually."

"What are you talk-"

Blaine tilted his head up and took a step forward to kiss Kurt. He made a big show of it too – cradling the taller boy into him and nipping slightly on Kurt's lip just before they separated.

Kurt, naturally, looked something between furious, scandalized and maybe a bit delighted as well. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish – an adorable fish – and stood there frozen.

The Magician was just silently enraged, only the slight crackling if the air betraying his anger. He didn't say anything then or during the day at all, but come evening Blaine was satisfied to find himself being called to the front.

"Blaine... why would you do something like that to Kurt?" the Magician asked while taking out his card deck.

Scowling, Blaine sat at the opposite side of the Magician. He felt the weight of the teacup box in the pocket of his slacks. Kurt had been mad about him for about half a day that he would use something as intimate as a kiss for his own agenda, but Blaine had explained that it was the best way for him to find himself in close proximity to the shop owner so soon. The apology, putting on his best 'puppy eyes' and another kiss – this time slow and in private – also did wonders to mellow Kurt's ire.

"I did nothing more than show my real feelings," he replied, not mentioning that these feelings were mutual – there was no need for Kurt to face similar consequences.

The Magician looked disappointed. His long fingers were shuffling the cards with a mechanic precision. "Perhaps we could talk about it and solve your problems."

"I don't have any problems," Blaine said sharply. "And for once we are not going to talk this time."

The Magician paused the shuffling, mildly intrigued. He had no reason to suspect that Blaine would challenge him – as far as he knew Blaine was too obliging to even think of going against him. Always pleasing everyone – helping the new kids feel at home, teaching them how to behave... excluding anything related to Kurt, he had a clean record.

"Do tell me, then, what you have in mind," the Magician smirked.

That confident sneer... Blaine felt like it was mocking him. "I want to challenge you. I want to play a game."

The Magician actually laughed. It was an unpleasant sound - like a dog barking, but more scratchy. "And here I was interested for a moment..."

"I'm_ not_ joking!"

The last bark of laughter went out. "Dear Blaine... have you forgotten how the last challenge that you witnessed went? It was three against one and you had two people on your side that could actually cast spells. It was still easy to win, but at least it was entertaining. You trying to challenge me without anything up your sleeve is just sad." He scrutinised the scared, wide, golden eyes . "We could still forget about it and proceed as normally."

Blaine instantly shook his head. "No, I know what I'm doing."

The Magician's kind mood was slowly changing. "You remember what happened to... to the ones who lost and I don't mean you."

It was easy to hide the fear, but not so easy to hide the anger. "I remember very well," he spat. "I want to challenge you, _because_ I remember."

"Well then," the Magician sighed and started to go through his card deck. Once in a while he would take out a card and put at the side. "If you are really sure you want to pay some kind of stupid tribute to these two idiots, then it's only appropriate that we play the same game that we played that time."

"Hearts? With only two players?"

"A slight variation. We'll take out 3's, 5's, 7's, 9's, Jacks and Kings out," The shop owner pointed out the pile of cards he had discarded from the deck. "Also, since we already know what we are passing to whom after the dealing, these cards are open."

Blaine shrugged – it really didn't matter what game they played and what rules were changed. He suspected the results would be the same no matter what.

"The good news is the Queen of Spades only gives you seven penalty points," the Magician smiled and Blaine shuddered at hearing the name of the card – _his_ card.

The cards fluttered during another shuffling. Blaine shifted a bit on his chair and the teacup bumped into his thigh. He just had to concentrate on what he _really _came here to do.

The Magician dealt the card and then they proceeded to the exchange.

After he had gotten the Ace of Spades, the man handed Blaine the Ace of Hearts with a big grin. Blaine glanced at the almost blank card and had to hold himself back from touching and tearing it – the card that brought Kurt into the shop. Having an Ace of Hearts in two player Hearts game was risky. _But so was pretty much everything connected to Kurt and it was still worth it_, Blaine thought fondly.

"Shall we begin?" the Magician asked, pulling out the Two of Clubs.

* * *

Blaine was losing. Badly.

"How is that you always start?"

They played in silence so far, but Blaine can't help but ask. That was because he expected the Magician to give himself all the advantages – but having been dealt the Two of Clubs card was not _always_ an advantage.

The Magician smiled almost genuinely and stroked the card like a pet.

"Out of fondness," he answered softly.

"Fondness for a card? Does it mean anything to you?" Blaine's eyes widened seeing the Magician display a glimpse of some human feelings. The boy felt like he'd stumbled onto something by mistake... weirdly familiar.

"They all do," the man smiled. "So do try not to scratch them or bend... like right now!"

Blaine noticed that he indeed pressed at them too hard and instantly loosened the hold on them. The boy suddenly looked at the cards as something more than just a cardboard pieces. They looked very old, but were in pristine shape – no bent corners, no marks.

Blaine shifted on his seat, thinking back to everything he had read on magic, but then he felt a jab at his leg from the 'Mad hatter's Cup'. _Right, first I'll do what I came here for._

When they finished another round – finished with the Magician's devastating win, like always – Blaine feigned frustration over his loss. He took the pile of his cards and hit the table with them as to straighten the edge of the stack.

"And I thought I was good at this!" he whined as the pile slid out of his hand on the last hit and the cards fluttered away to the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll help you!" he leaned forward and by _mistake_ toppled the tidy rows of 'Mad Hatter's Cups'.

The boxes fell all over the desk surface. Blaine naturally rushed to help put them back. The Magician didn't suspect anything – it was, after all, what Blaine would usually do anyway. With help, he managed to put the products back in order.

"It's okay, Blaine. Always so helpful." He apprised the boy afterward. "It will be a real pity..."

Blaine swallowed, realizing that even though he didn't use any magic to directly challenge the Magician he still might get a severe punishment for the card game challenge. It was too late, though, to turn back and still, Blaine did feel a small satisfaction when he didn't feel the hard corners of the cup digging into his leg anymore.

* * *

"And... you have now 110 points," the Magician exclaimed. There was no joy in his voice – just a dry satisfaction. He had known he would win and so had Blaine.

"Your naiveté in thinking you could gain a victory against a magic practitioner in a card game is almost endearing," the man smiled unkindly.

Blaine didn't reply and kept his eyes down, because he didn't want to show that he was pretty content with the overall results – that was, if Burt Hummel would indeed come by, and by some miracle notice whatever clue Kurt put on the cup and then find a way to help them...

Blaine knew that he must be pretty desperate to do something, anything to not to spend another eight or more years here.

The Magician saw the doubt on Blaine's face and took it as regret. "Don't worry, Blaine. When I told you once that I learned from that unfortunate incident with those two misguided boys I meant it. You are a very capable young man who makes life easier for everyone and I would miss that. Besides, you didn't try to do anything even stupider, like using magic against me, so..." he paused dramatically, "... I decided to go easy on you for that."

Blaine let out a real, shaky sigh of relief. He expected that he wouldn't have been harmed unless he'd been caught while planting the additional chop tea cup, but the slight threat was always there.

"Should I go then?" he asked.

The Magician squashed his relief and hopes with a patronising smirk. "Oh, Blaine. I was talking only about our game here. There is still a matter of your..._inappropriate_ behaviour this morning."

Blaine remembered the earlier kiss. The only inappropriate thing about it was the reason he kissed Kurt.

"For that, I think we will have that 'conversation' after all," the man smiled with unusual malice, but Blaine barely cared about that. It was something he had been through many times after all.

* * *

"Kurt, wake up."

"_Kuuurt."_

He didn't want to...

"You stupid twink – move your butt now!"

Kurt's neck hurt and so did his eyes, but he opened them in order not to hear that annoying hiss anymore.

"What time it is..." He tilted his head to see whose silhouette was looming above him. "...Kitty? Can you just get lost and let me sleep?"

"No." The girl crossed her arms over her chest. "I need you to wake up, because I'm not strong enough to drag his body through the shop."

Kurt wondered if she was just a part of some bizarre dream he was having.

"Then don't drag it," he said and closed his eyes hoping that this dream would just vanish that way.

"And here I thought that you cared about Blaine a little. You know – since you guys wrestled tongues yesterday."

Kurt opened his eyes and lifted himself on his elbows. "We didn't use tongues and what does Blaine have to do with anything?"

"Because he's that sack of potatoes I need you to drag. Or at least to cover from the cold." She threw a folded blanket at the pale boy.

She didn't have to add anything more. With a sudden wave of adrenaline Kurt surged from his sofa. It must have been a very early morning, because the interior of the shop was still quite dark, but he could easily make out the way behind Kitty through the shop.

"And what are you doing up so early?" Kurt asked the girl in front of him. The slightly damp high blond ponytail stopped bobbing for a moment and Kitty turned back.

"Hogging up the bathroom. I was just leaving when the Creep came to me and told me to get Puck or Jake to collect Blaine from the front."

"But you got me instead."

"I like them way more than you, so I wanted them to sleep."

Kurt sighed. _Would it hurt her not to show herself as such a cold blooded lizard for once?_ However, Kitty's issues left his mind the moment he saw Blaine.

With a painful gasp, Kurt rushed to the crumpled figure that was lying on the floor between the shelves. The taller boy leaned over Blaine for a moment, expecting the worst, and sighed shakily after making sure that the sleeping boy was breathing normally and didn't look like he was hurt. _At least physically._

"Where is that son of a b-"

"Quiet, you moron," Kitty hissed at him. "The Magician went to sleep and getting in trouble with him won't help Blaine at all."

"I know," Kurt admitted with reluctance. He was afraid to wonder why Blaine hadn't just come back after the 'talk'. If the Magician had only just gone to bed it meant that they had been going through Blaine's visions up until dawn? Kurt knew how painful even two hours of such interrogation was and to think that Blaine spent the whole night on it ...

He cradled the curly-haired head on his lap, moving few loose hair strands from Blaine's face and tucking them behind his ear.

Kitty helped him to unfold the blanket, but before she could put it around Blaine, the shorter boy mumbled something and cracked open his eyes.

"Blaine?" Kurt whispered.

The boy frowned at him, looking confused. "And you are-?"

"It's not that dark - don't you re-" Kurt's eyes started to sting. "Recognize me?"

Blaine stared at him for a while. He was beginning to shake his head when he remembered. "The Ace of Hearts?"

Kurt sniffed. "What happened? What did you do, Blaine? You were just supposed to-" He trailed of remembering that Kitty was here.

And she was sharp as usual.

"What was he supposed to do? And what's with that nickname? Did you guys did something in secret from us?"

"It's nothing – he just had a bad dream."

"Bullshit!" Kitty opposed too loudly for Kurt's liking. "I've seen you to spending an awful time together and being careful to be alone. At first I thought you were just making out, but now I see you two are little conspirators."

Kurt looked around, half expecting the Magician to come out. "Kitty, be quiet, please." He pleaded. "It's complicated and I'll try to explain, but if you start yelling about it now we might get discovered."

Kitty hesitated.

"Please... Just let me take care of him first."

Looking at Blaine, she softened. "Okay, but I expect a detailed report of what you two have done and it better not have a negative impact over the rest of us!"

"It won't," Kurt promised. "The only ones suffering the consequences will be Blaine and me," he added bitterly.

"Blaine?" the curly-haired boy asked.

"Yes, Blaine. You are Blaine." Kurt soothed the figure curled in his lap. "It will be alright. We'll figure things out." He understood now how Blaine had felt all these years – he was also ready to wait ages if that would mean he could get back at the Magician for whatever he did to Blaine.

* * *

Burt Hummel hesitated only for a moment – his hand above the brass handle – before opening the door to the magic shop.

He was one of those detectives that normally abhorred using only 'a gut feel', but this time he was sure that the heavy stir of disgust in his stomach that he felt whenever he saw the owner of **_House of Wonders_** couldn't be a coincidence.

There were the little things he had caught on – and he was known at work to be able to catch onto the useful details - like the nervous ticks on the man's face, almost sickly kindness, spilling details about the missing children and Burt that he didn't remember telling him, and finally the hesitation in hanging the alert posters. For a proper investigation or search warrant it wasn't enough, but it was enough for Burt to want to go there almost every day, just wait for the shop owner to make some kind of mistake.

He patted his pocket where he kept the stack of photographs, including his own son's.

Kurt...

Burt regretted that the last time they had seen each other had ended with an argument. He wished that he could have just said yes to that stupid lock instead of trying to find out the true _reason_ for Kurt's demand for more privacy. When Kurt hadn't come back for the night, couldn't be found at any of his friends and his phone was disconnected, Burt knew something had happened.

He was devastated and yet hopeful at the same time when he found that the circumstances were similar to few other missing children cases. Devastated because none of them had been found, but hopeful, because there had been no _bodies_ found either. Burt knew that he would always treat Kurt as alive and waiting for him somewhere even if there was no hard evidence to prove otherwise.

When he finally decided to open the door the jingle above him sounded like an intruder alarm. Automatically his eyes met the shop owner's – the man looked somehow taller, energetic and sporting a better complexion that day as if after the best vacation of his life.

"Detective Hummel," he nodded and walked from behind the front desk to greet Burt. Behind him Mr Hummel could see the photographs of the missing children finally pinned to bookshelves' sides .

"As you can see I did hang them," The man smugly noticed where the detective was looking.

"If only these were the only ones missing..." Burt said, watching the shop owner's face carefully.

The man was very surprised. "There... there were other kids missing?" he asked, frowning.

"Not recently. You see, I did a little digging and these kidnappings-"

"Kidnappings?" The man interrupted him. "Aren't they just missing?"

Burt schooled his face with an expression 'I'm a cop – don't question my investigation' and answered. "We have reasons to think not." He watched for a moment as the man squirmed before reaching to his pocket. "I did a little digging and found an interesting old case from this town." He took out a piece of paper and unfolded it in front of the shop owner's face.

Burt watched the man's eyes flicker for a moment as he looked at the old photograph and suddenly the detective wanted nothing more than snap the cuffs over the man's wrists and drag him to the station as his stomach twisted with suspicion.

"I don't think I remember that case," the shop owner said politely, "It looks like an old photograph so searching for this young man must be difficult." He moved back to the front desk. "Forgive me for asking, but why do you keep coming here with all this news. You won't find these children here – the only ones here are customers. Frankly, your visits are becoming tiresome and repetitive – and I'm too busy a salesman for that."

Burt folded back the old photo, looking absentmindedly at the desk. Something caught his attention...

"Can I see these?"

The shop owner looked at the boxes that were pointed out. "'Mad Hatter's Cup'? Of course. These are really good for a beginner magician. A classic chop cup. Every prop is already prepared for the trick and there are instructions how to use it... I didn't know you were interested in this stuff, detective."

Burt pulled out one of the boxes with a frown on his face. "Usually I don't, but I reckon that I won't know for sure if I don't try, right?"

"Quite so. I could recommend something even easier for a first timer?"

"This will do," Burt said and took out his wallet.

"Oh no no..." The shop owner waved his hand with a sunny smile. "Think of it as a gift to show that I want nothing but friendship with you."

Burt quirked an eyebrow at him, but put the wallet back. "Thanks. I guess I should go – I have stuff to do at the station. Papers. Reports. And the like." Clutching the box the detective all but ran out of the shop, leaving a surprised Magician in his wake .

The shop owner shrugged; relieved he was rid of Burt Hummel without needing to use magic. He took out his stock ledger to cross out the chop cup without adding its price to the cash register.

"Okay, that leaves the fifteen-" He paused looking back at the row of the cups. They were displayed in two rows. And the rows were now equal which meant the number of cups was even... The Magician counted the boxes. "Sixteen? But he took one... So there were seventeen?"

The Magician stared at the objects and tried to solve the question of the extra cup. The extra cup that was now in Burt Hummel's hands. That was something more than coincidental and the Magician had an idea who he needed to interrogate about that...

* * *

**next chapter: House of Return**


	9. House of Return

**AN: Last chapter - here we go! I hope you all enjoyed the story - I would be grateful for any feedback on it!**

**Once again I would like to thank gg42 for her tremendous help and for anyone interested there is an appendix at the end that might explain some card/characters references I did. It has loads of spoilers so read it after you finish, please!**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**House of Return**

Kurt hadn't left Blaine's side since finding him semi-conscious in the shop's corridor. He managed at some point to convince the semi-conscious boy to move to the back of the shop, to lie down on the sofa instead of hard floor.

Blaine could barely speak. He remembered bits and pieces of what had happened, but was getting distracted easily. Kurt kept speaking to him, retelling him their plan, their kiss...was calling to him and pleading him to come back through tears , to be the same Blaine he remembered.

Kurt pretty much had lost all the hopes he had for their attempt to escape. Blaine was like his mentor for the magic shop's rules and only he had any understanding what sort of magic the shop owner was using, what they had to watch out for. Now suddenly it was on Kurt's head to explain everything to not only Kitty, but to the other kids she had gathered.

Without Blaine's help and proficiency in explaining things clearly, Kurt's story was a complete mess.

"And how are you sure the Magician won't notice the additional chop cup?"

"Better question – how are you sure you dad _will_ notice it?"

"How are the Police supposed to find us when we are freaking invisible to them!"

Kurt - caged between the currently sleeping Blaine and the livid group of teenagers had tears in his eyes.

"I. Don't. Know," he said yet again. _Blaine, please, get your shit together_ _before they stab me to death with their questions._

"I don't know why you guys are making such a problem out of this," Santana, who had been quiet until now, said.

"Thank you, San-"

"If the Magician notices anything we just truthfully say it was all Kurt and we had no idea about it."

Kurt slumped next to Blaine. "Yeah, you do that," He remarked dryly. "And then I wish you all a happy, happy forever here."

They all felt before they heard that the Magician was coming toward them. He didn't care about subtlety when the air warped around him as he disappeared from the real shop and into their dimension. His face was like a wax figures but his body looked tense as he stomped in their direction. The kids instinctively took a step back – excluding Kurt, who remained seated next to Blaine.

"Kurt," the shop owner hissed as if it was a name for a nasty disease.

Kurt knew there was only one reason for the Magician to look at him like that. They were somehow discovered. He slid his hand over the thick blanket by his side until he found Blaine's warm fingers resting on it and squeezed them almost painfully. _Blaine, I change my request – please wake up at least so I could look into your eyes for the last time. _

The curly-haired boy remained asleep, so it was all left to Kurt. Part of him was content with that – Blaine didn't deserve any more punishment for helping him.

"I don't think we were properly introduced, because my full name is Kurt Hummel," he spoke, revelling in the momentary shock on the Magician's face. It quickly disappeared, of course, but Kurt still counted it as a small 'win' for himself.

The man looked around. "I'd like to inform you that I noticed your plan to smuggle a message outside of the shop. What I'd like to know is if you all are a part of this childish mutiny."

The group looked around each other, making sure they never made eye contact with Kurt. It was easy as the boy had his eyes glued to the shop owner.

The Magician noticed their hesitation and how they distanced themselves from Kurt. He smiled a bit gentler.

"Anyone who didn't take part in this atrocious plan can leave the room any time."

Kurt wasn't sure who would leave first, but he certainly didn't expect it to be Puck – the poster badboy who had defiance in his blood.

"And that would be my cue to go," he said and grabbed Jake by his arm. "Me and my brother don't have anything to do with these losers."

"Puck!" Jake shouted, bewildered. "What are you-"

"We just started to get along recently – I'm not going to lose my little brother over some stupid plan that obviously didn't work out!" he growled back and started to drag Jake behind him.

Kurt closed his eyes. The others will follow them soon.

"No one knew about it - we should all just go and leave Kurt," Kitty blurted out. However, she didn't move from her spot – just shifted her body weight from one leg to another.

"I'm going to stay," Rachel exclaimed. She stood with hands on her hips, trying to look taller than she was. "I didn't know about any plan – which is something I'm pissed about." She then actually turned at Kurt. "How could you keep me out of this? The lead should always know what the good guys are planning!"

"Rachel, focus!" Kurt hissed back.

"Oh, yeah..." Rachel remembered where she was. "My point is I'm staying right here, to have a front seat for the culmination."

The Magician impatiently interrupted her. "I wouldn't call it a culmination, just a mere obstacle, an interval in your comfortable life here."

However, no matter how stoic he tried to appear, Kurt could see that he was shaken more by their machinations than he wanted to show. The air around him kept shifting, the pattern on the floor wiggled around his feet as if he couldn't stabilize himself in either dimension.

Kurt had a sudden thought if he was now seeing the real face of the Magician – a quick-tempered control freak that kept a calm facade to concentrate on his spells. He opened his mouth to throw some scathing remarks on his own to rile him even more, but it looked like he didn't have to.

The Magician just about had it with Rachel. The girl always had it in her head that she was not only a lead in her life, but she was The Lead in everyone else's. The point was, she actually _was_ inspiring and charismatic when she wasn't fighting for her own agenda. After she spoke it didn't matter what dramatic rubbish it was – it made everyone else hesitate to leave, to not turn out to be someone more cowardly than her.

The Magician opened his mouth to shout at them when he remembered Kurt.

"I'm troubling here myself with these kids while it is really only _you_ that is sabotaging my hard work here."

"So you are going to kill me?" Kurt seethed, covering his fear. "Just like you killed Sebastian, Hunter and who knows – maybe even more kids in the past!"

"Sometimes to fix the problem you need to take out it whole, like a tumour," the Magician confirmed. "I don't know how you got these names... or maybe I _do_ know," he tilted his chin to point at the curled figure of Blaine.

Kurt stood up and protectively blocked the view of the unconscious boy. "It doesn't matter how."

"Actually it does. My Blaine... he was showing such promise... He survived the longest, you know? Just the right mixture of obedience, intelligence and charisma."

_So there were more kids. A lot more of them._ Kurt wanted to shout that the Magician wasn't right about Blaine, that out all of them he was probably the one to hate this man the most. Enough to endure so many years studying magic just for one moment of revenge...that had been wasted on Kurt's whim. The pale boy didn't say anything – keeping Blaine's magic a secret was more important now than defending his honour.

The Magician appeared to also have been enough of talking. He lifted one of his hands lazily and quickly murmured something inaudible.

Kurt felt a ringing in his ears like an alarm to run away. The painful burn started to spread within him, travelling through his spine and every bone in his body. He had his mouth open but wasn't even aware if he was screaming anything or not. He could hear some loud commotion around them in the shop – louder, panicked voices, quick steps, but they were being overrun by the thumping of his own heartbeat and the rushing of blood. When Blaine had been telling the story about Sebastian and Hunter he hadn't elaborated on how exactly the spell worked, but Kurt guessed that only the one on receiving end could know that the worst of it was happening inside. Kurt's whole spine burned twisted along its whole length. He quickly got that this was how he would be controlled and eventually thrown against the wall.

Instead of the tragic finish however, the invisible, burning hands on him let go for a moment when he heard his name shouted by a familiar voice.

"Dad?" he whispered and was frightened by how raspy his voice was.

Kurt saw the detective push and shout something at the last customer and then made his way closer through the main aisle.

"Dad!" he croaked weakly.

The Magician turned around to see the detective approaching and observed him for a moment. "He can't see us anyway. He might be suspicious about me not being inside the shop, but he has nothing but a hunch and probably some kind of a note from you."

Kurt caught the admission that his father had actually managed to get the message – _he remembered the stupid tea cup!_ Frankly, Kurt had expected him to go and do some proper detective work first like some research and digging into the shop's past perhaps, but he was glad in that moment that his dad decided to skip the formalities and simply barged in looking for his son.

Burt frantically looked around. It was a strange image to see him searching for them pretty much blindly while they were all gathered just few metres away from him.

"Is that your dad, Kurt?" Rachel got her voice back and Kurt regretted _his_ voice wasn't able to shout at her in anger, because he would so wish to do it after her shrilly voice had shaken the Magician off his momentary shock.

"So touching," He said. "You must be glad you are able to see him for the last time. Shame _he_ can't do the same. Now, I think I had enough of playing with you." His eyes shone as he suddenly smiled. "I wonder if Blaine would spend another eight years here remembering you and vowing his revenge on me for _your_ death."

Kurt closed his eyes and his ears were filled with loud noise again as he shook, but this time it felt different. The painful squeeze on his spine was finally gone and instead he felt an irritating tickle on his face. It was, however, only after Kurt heard an angry gasp from the Magician that he decided to open his eyes.

There had been strange things happening in the **_House of Wonders_**, but this probably took the metaphorical cake. Inside the room, somehow on the verge between spring and summer it was _snowing_. Stunned, Kurt, deaf to the sounds around him, admired the sparkly cloud of snow and opened his palm up to allow the snowflakes to drop onto it. He realized then it was actually a piece of paper. Confused, the boy took a step back and collided with a broad body standing behind him just as his hearing returned.

"Kurt? You alive, dude?"

It was Puck – the same Puck who earlier had decided it wasn't worth it to defy the Magician. The same Puck who had just exploded, what was probably his biggest confetti bomb.

"The Magician!" Kurt gasped. He didn't expect the man to be brought down by Puck's invention, but he _was_ brought down by something else – by _someone_ else.

It seemed like only a second ago Blaine was still lying on the sofa unconscious , but now the curly-haired boy was on top of the Magician, grappling with him to keep the man down.

"Kurt!?"

Burt shouted again, clearly panicked at not being able to find the Magician – and Kurt, consequently - anywhere. Kurt glanced at him running around the place and felt the pressure of the tears welling in his eyes. What was the point on bringing his dad here when he knew they couldn't talk or touch each other? Wrenching his eyes off Burt, he rushed toward Blaine.

"Oh, Blaine, it won't do anything!" Rachel cried off to the side.

Kurt passed her and to his surprise he felt himself calming down despite the situation. His hands stopped shaking from the earlier pain and legs begged him to sit down. Knowing this feeling from somewhere before, Kurt focused on the pair wrestling in front of him. Indeed, Blaine murmured his sleeping spell at the Magician, who was fighting drowsily.

Kurt was not only astonished that Blaine would take on the shop owner in his current state, but even more so seeing that it was working.

For a short while.

"It's still too early for you, boy, to fight me," the Magician sneered and quickly pressed his spidery fingers over Blaine's forehead. With a painful cry the boy was pushed away, sliding on the floor few feet away.

"Blaine!" A few voices shouted and Marley together with Kitty jumped in to help the short boy.

The Magician brushed the dust from his clothes, his face reddening with anger. "Of all the people you, Blaine... I thought that I could count on you..."

Blaine chuckled weakly. He looked at the Magician and Kurt felt relieved to see the brightness returning to Blaine's golden eyes.

"Count on me after you killed my friends and after you just tried to..." He glanced at Kurt fondly.

"It doesn't matter," The Magician decided. "I could just try again and again... And I will remember to not trust any of you, little bastards." He reached to his pocket and froze. "You..."

Blaine made a show of flipping through the cards that everyone recognized as the Magician's personal deck. The curly-haired boy smirked at one of them and pulled it out.

"Looking for your favourite deck... or only for this one?" He held up a Two of Clubs.

The Magician gaped. Then, with a sudden fury he leapt forward just to freeze a half-step suddenly.

"I don't think so." Blaine held the card with both his hands and scrunched it**, **stretching its edge a bit.

"How did you..." The Magician was baffled.

"I had my suspicions... and you just confirmed them," Blaine kept his voice cool, but Kurt could see that the hazel eyes were wide open and Blaine's forehead shone with beads of sweat.

_Oh, God, he's making it up as he goes... _Kurt would have been angry at Blaine for risking so much if they all weren't pretty much in a life or death situation here from the very beginning.

The Magician tried to take yet another step, but Blaine just raised his eyebrows and delicately tugged on the card which was now on a verge of tearing.

"We appear to have a tie here," The shop owner said, eyeing Jake and Puck who, meanwhile, had surrounded him from the sides. "What do you want?"

Kurt gawked at that. _How could he not know what we want?_

"We want to be able to go to the real world," Blaine said, shuddering with anger. "Not just for a moment – we want to leave this place permanently."

"It's impossible – you can't do it," the Magician said.

None of the teenagers gathered could suppress a cry of disappointment, but Blaine just sat straighter, his eyes on the man.

"You can and so can we."

Kurt glared at Blaine questioningly.

"What do you mean, Blaine? He's a magician and probably knows a spell..." Rachel asked weakly.

Blaine tugged the card he was holding. "He's under the same spell that we are, but he can move between and I want to know how."

The Magician considered him coolly. "Okay. You pretty much hold all the cards here," he winced at the accidental pun. "You just need each to have the card on you and... just wish to go back."

"Great, you just need to tell us who is which card," Kurt cut in and revelled in the bewildered expression appearing on the man's waxy face.

"You know about... I see that you two spent your time on more than _practicing your debauchery_."

Someone snorted – Santana? Puck? Probably both – while Kurt's cheeks blossomed with pink hue.

"Doesn't matter how I know – I need the names of the cards. Start with mine."

The Magician sighed. "Fine. Yours is Five of Clubs-"

"Bullshit. My dad taught me how to recognize if someone lies." Kurt swiftly lied, wanting to get truthful answers for the others as quickly as possible. "Next time you try that trick I'll just get Blaine to tear your card while we try all the other ones until we get them right. I wonder what would happen then?"

Kurt secretly prayed that the Magician wouldn't notice in his rapid speech that after destroying the card they wouldn't have any leverage left over him.

The man narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, but fortunately gave in. "... Yours is the Ace of Hearts."

Listening to his instructions, Kurt and Marley divided the deck and distributed the cards to the group. When left with few spare ones and the Queen of Spades, Kurt finally moved to be by Blaine's side.

"Just put it into my pocket," the shorter boy said, smiling.

Kurt slid the card into Blaine's pants' pocket and swallowed nervously. He was again overwhelmed with getting _his_ Blaine back. He wanted to kiss the curly-haired boy senseless, but was aware it would be too much of a distraction at the moment. _Will do that later, free,_ he hoped.

"Can I get it back now?" the Magician asked, but received no reply.

"Kurt, you'll go first to check if it works," Blaine decided.

Kurt nodded. He knew for sure it was his own card, so it would be a good way to check if it worked. The card didn't feel peculiar when he closed his eyes for a moment and wished to go back into the 'real' part of the magic shop.

"I don't think it works – I can still-" Brittany's voice was cut off from Kurt's ears.

So was everyone else's. The pale boy looked around and with a rapidly beating heart noticed that he was in the shop's back area all on his own.

_I really hope I wasn't sent to yet another dimension_, he thought grimly. Well, one way to check it.

"Dad!" Kurt shouted. "Dad, I'm here!"

While the teenagers struggled with the Magician, Burt Hummel had wandered off in his search around the shop. He was just picking the lock to the Magician's private rooms when he heard the voice he was beginning to lose hope of ever hearing again.

"Kurt?!" he shouted back. "I'm coming! Stay where you are!"

"Okay!" Kurt beamed and turned around. "It looks like it worked – let's try to get back everyone else," he advised the huge empty space in front of him hoping that they heard him.

While Burt raced between the bookshelves, with finding his son the only thing on his mind, the rest of the teenagers started to shift through the dimension. The last ones were Blaine with Puck and Jake who held the Magician and his card with them. After they were back in the real world Blaine quickly pried the Two of Clubs from the man's hand as the Magician would still be dangerous if he could just disappear and reappear whenever he wanted.

Kurt noticed that his dad had stopped just before them, clearly shocked by the group of teenagers appearing in front of him out of thin air. He waved at him with a big smile.

"Dad!" That got his father's attention yet again and a million expressions appeared on the older man's face, one after another.

"Kurt? Bud, is that really you?" Kurt felt a rush of emotions grasping at his heart at something as simple as his nickname.

Forgetting for a moment about anything else around him – the Magician, freedom, even Blaine – he sprinted forward, barely hearing a shout of warning.

Kurt didn't even have time to register the danger and feel threatened as the Magician's shadow loomed next to him. Spidery fingers reached out for his throat. He heard a single BANG that echoed in the almost empty shop. The man bent in half and fell, crippled, to the floor. He cradled his left knee and cried out in anguish.

"Whoa- What..."

Kurt smelled a rusty metallic tang – so strong that he could taste it in his mouth. Someone was moving him out of the way while his dad rushed over to catch the Magician, putting his gun back into the belted holster underneath his coat.

"You... you just..." The shop owner was more surprised than in pain when Burt brutally twisted his arms back and snapped cuffs over his wrists. The detective half-heartedly informed him of his rights with an 'accidental' shove to his bleeding leg.

"That's not enough," said a voice behind Kurt that belonged to Blaine.

The shorter boy quickly crouched and to everyone's surprise took off his right shoe along with his sock. Without the hesitation he walked up to the Magician and brutishly stuffed the garment into the man's mouth.

At Burt's raised eyebrows he explained himself. "He could invoke a spell vocally."

He retreated from the red-faced, furious Magician, then looked down and discarded his other sock. "Never really liked to wear them," he admitted absentmindedly and looked at Kurt.

"I guess this is i-"

He was unable to finish his thought as Kurt leapt into his arms and crushed their lips together. It was probably the most raw kiss they'd ever had– teeth and noses hitting each other as they collided - but they were too exhilarated to care.

A dry cough interrupted them and Kurt unwrapped his arms from around Blaine's neck. He turned to his side and the wide smile froze on his face when he faced his dad. For a moment that felt like hours the two Hummels stared at each other awkwardly. Kurt's eyes were burning, but he didn't dare even to blink as he waited for his dad to say something, knowing that he was going to cry no matter what words he heard.

Burt scratched his nose and opened his arms. "I thought _I _would be the first to get a hug after you were freed," he grumbled quietly.

As Kurt had anticipated, he teared up instantly as he closed the distance between him and his dad. He sobbed even more as he felt no rejection in Burt's embrace – only relief and love.

"I'm sorry." He sniffed into his dad's ear and got a soothing murmur as a response. He knew he should come clean. "Dad, I'm... um..."

"I know," Burt interrupted him.

"Right." Kurt took a step back. "I guess that kiss was pretty clear."

Burt actually snorted, relieving the rest of the tension between them. "By 'I know' I mean I always knew, or at least I suspected."

"Really?"

"Well, there were the clothes, that George Clooney obsession you had, the tea parties."

Blaine couldn't help grinning at them. "Oh, the famous tea parties."

"And then, of course, I ransacked your room when you disappeared and I couldn't be more sure after I found-"

"Dad," Kurt cut in. "I think that's _enough_ of my embarrassment."

It certainly was enough when they heard a kick followed by a whine.

"You didn't have to kick him, young man." Burt half-heartedly lectured Puck.

"He was rolling his eyes, sir." The mohawked teen all but saluted to the detective.

The Burt looked long and hard at the man. "I called for reinforcement just before running inside, so I just don't want you getting in troubles for hitting the harmless man."

The group of teenagers started protesting.

"He's hardly harmless," Santana shouted, holding Brittany's hand tightly. "That creep can still cast magic and all."

"I promise we'll keep him gagged," Burt assured.

"And how are you going to keep that happening without believable justification, sir?" Blaine suddenly spoke and Kurt knew he was very tense. The pale boy hadn't forgotten that the curly-haired boy had sworn revenge against the Magician.

Burt didn't look concerned about the Magician finding a way out of his situation. "You would be surprised, Blaine, in what my boss Sue is able to believe when faced with evidence. I wouldn't worry about it. The only thing I want you kids to think about is that we'll get you all to your parents soon."

The group collectively slumped onto the floor, exhausted from all that had just happened. Puck and Jake insisted to keep an eye on the shop owner, but they also looked more relaxed now.

Blaine, however, crossed arms over his chest in a defensive gesture. "How do you know my name, sir? I don't think I am on the list of the recent missing kids?"

Burt silently reached to his pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. "It's not recent, but I see you hardly changed over all these years."

Blaine stared at the photo of himself – a trustful, smiling face framed in hair slicked with gel that he had long abandoned while living in the shop. Underneath he could read his name _Blaine Anderson_.

"I found it when I started digging deeper into that case. I have to say you look very young for a twenty-four year old."

Blaine folded the photo back. "The dimension we were in kept us at the same age physically. I have to admit that the lack of interaction with the outside world and lack of proper education hardly would make me mature enough for my real age as well."

"I actually hope you are right, Blaine," Burt responded. "Because this-" He pointed between the curly-haired boy and a blushing Kurt. "- would be a big NO otherwise."

"Seven years is hardly a problematic gap, dad," Kurt complained.

"It is when you are underage, bud."

Kurt glared at his father the whole time they waited for the police and the ambulances to arrive, but deep inside he knew they were more than alright now – without secrets and happy to be back together.

* * *

After being interrogated by 'Iron' Sue at the station, Kurt managed to find Blaine sipping coffee by himself in the corridor.

"have they contacted your parents?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah. They'll be here in half hour. This will be awkward." Blaine gripped his cup tighter.

"I hope a good 'awkward'?"

"They did sound happy over the phone, so I think it will be alright. I mean, there will be years of therapy and stuff I'm sure I really don't need, but I'll survive somehow. I've already started remembering the names of my parents and other stuff I had forgotten."

"Hmm..." Kurt frantically thought how to cheer an apathetic Blaine up. "Do you know how my dad got to my message?"

Blaine looked at the pale boy with raised eyebrows. "He opened the bottom where the magnet was, didn't he?"

"Nope." Kurt puckered his lips. "He broke it. Smashed with his gun barrel."

Blaine sighed, smirking. "Two is already a habit. Burt Hummel – Destroyer of Teacups. By the way, you never said what you wrote to him in your secret code."

"Uh, there was no code – I wrote the pure truth. I thought you'd advise me against it, afraid they wouldn't take the message seriously. To be honest, I think my dad blocked out the whole 'magic' part at first when he read that I was in the shop."

"Wow... simple, but effective."

Kurt suddenly narrowed his eyes to squint at the shorter boy. "Funny – you didn't have stubble just an hour ago."

Surprised, Blaine rubbed his chin to find it scruffy. "Interesting."

"Do you... do you think your body is catching up with your real age?"

Blaine continued to rub his jaw, thinking. "Could be. We better not tell your dad that, because I think he was serious about that whole age gap thing. And I would really like to continue... seeing you. If you want."

Kurt beamed, hearing that. "Of course I want. And I don't care if my boyfriend is younger or older."

The sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, before Kurt gasped suddenly.

"The Magician!"

"What about him?" Blaine tensed the moment he was reminded of the shop owner.

"If _you_ are catching up with your age, then... He lived for hundreds of years, right?"

Blaine got it. It wasn't as satisfying as killing him himself, but... "I guess I'll get my revenge, sooner than later. And I'm sure that the rapid aging can't be a pleasant thing to go through."

Kurt nodded. He was glad that his boyfriend didn't harm anyone in the end out of revenge, even that creepy toad of a magician.

"Can I... put my head onto your shoulder?" he asked shyly, eyeing Blaine's torso – _did it just get wider?_

Blaine scooted closer. "Sure – if you are not afraid of anyone giving us trouble over that."

"My dad already informed every policeman working here that he will shoot anyone if they commented negatively about my sexuality."

Blaine laughed nervously. It looked like being Kurt's boyfriend meant being constantly threatened by the overprotective Burt Hummel, but the sweet boy, whose hair was pleasantly tickling his jaw now, was definitely worth it.

They sat like that as they waited for Blaine's parents and the curly-haired boy stopped worrying about going back to his family, because with this warm body pressed to his own he already felt like he was home.

THE END

* * *

**Appendix**

**I had a request on tumblr to explain how I went about the connection between characters and their cards and what cards I chose for characters not drawn by Magicalplaylist. Below is my answer as I thought that it might interest other readers as well (this is not betaed, so please ignore any mistakes/grammar issues, please!) B**

***SPOILER ALERT – READ THE STORY FIRST!***

**SPADES:**

**Hunter/Ace of Spades: highest powerful card in deck (Hunter is badass and knows some magic – Duh!) BTW it's also called 'death card' – sorry Hunt T_T**

**Sebastian/ King of Spades: naturally second in command after Hunter, BTW in tarot it represents a crooked lawyer ;P**

**Blaine/Queen of Spades: a powerful, risky card, in the story he is also a second powerful character in terms of magic skills. It's considered an unlucky card, but if you get it from dealing in Hearts, you could control who gets it as a penalty if you do it intelligently. You could say that Blaine is unlucky for the captured kids as his welcoming nature makes them accept their fate easier and give up rebelling, but in the end he ends up being 'unlucky' to the Magician…**

****If I were to continue with these I would probably stick to Warblers for Spades. They are the cards of people chosen in the past and the ones that Magician considered 'strong' (but we know he was not always right about everyone)**

**DIAMONDS - these I guess MagicalPlaylist assigned to the 4th season kids**

**Marley/Ace of Diamonds: I admit I cut her plot a bit due to lack of time, so not much significance there. She might seem too meek for that card, but she became, after all a kind of lead singer and songwriter in glee so there you go haha**

**Kitty/King of Diamonds: strong personality, huge ego**

**Jake/ Jack of Diamonds: in tarot it represents a young person ('little brother?) his plot as Pucks brother & Marley's romantic interest also unfortunately was cut short due to time limit – damn, I feel like I should do now a 'director's cut' version with all these plot bunnies I had and that were left out.**

****And who would be the Queen in here? Queen - Probably Unique, as she existed purely because of all the care Wade put into expressing her**

**HEARTS**

**Kurt/ Ace of Hearts: in Hearts it's a dangerous card, but if you have it & Queen of Spades together you might have a chance to reach for 'shooting the moon' (your opponents get 26 points of penalty each) It's also a card of desire and love ^_^ Most of Blaine's actions that are not caused by revenge are caused by his feelings toward Kurt**

**Rachel/King of Hearts: if you remember I also had this card representing Burt at some point. However, who knows – maybe Magician did a tarot reading during that vision by mistake and foretold Kurt's interaction with Rachel the next day? ;P But overall – overbearing personality, love of leading and being the important one…**

**Puck/ Jack of Hearts: my choice – because of Marvel's superhero! Might be strange, that he's different suit than Jake, but they were raised separately. They are both jacks though**

****If continued, Hearts would probably include Mercedes as Queen of Hearts?**

**CLUBS**

**Quinn/ Ace of Clubs: she's an alpha bitch, so of course she gets this card haha.**

**Brittany/ King of Clubs: Magicalplaylist chose that in reference to the prom, season 3**

**Santana/Queen of Clubs: to match Brittany and complete their Unholy Trinity**

***Overall their plots were cut a lot as well, just giving hints of what they were struggling with during the imprisonment… sorry…**

**And there is, of course…**

***DOUBLE SPOILER ALERT – READ THE STORY TWICE (just to be safe ;P) ***

**The Magician – Two of Clubs: It's the card that starts the circle of tricks, the game. The Magician was the first one to take the spell onto himself and then started to make others as his 'copies' (no surprise the veterans – Seb, Hunter, Blaine - started to learn magic in that case) . Hopefully it was possible to guess when Blaine started suspecting that Magician is one of them?**

**So that's the cards explained from my side. I was entertaining myself with guessing hypothetical characters for other cards (Finn as Jack of Hearts?), but these were not officially established and we might never know them - unless the mysterious person who stole THE MAGICAL DECK OF CARDS while everyone was too busy capturing the Magician would use them for something in the future…:P**


End file.
